Never Leaving
by Very happy randomness fairy
Summary: What can possibly be worse than falling in love with perfection? I have no idea, I just know that I don't want to leave him. No matter what I'm never leaving. Changed the summary!
1. Chapter 1 Abandoned

A/N: I just need to ask something: Is it team Gai, or team Guy?

**Chapter 1. **

**Abandoned**

I was standing in the middle of the training field Team Gai usually trained in. I felt strangely abandoned, like no one could see me. I felt like a leaf on a tree, or a drop in the ocean. I was there, but no one paid any attention to me, everyone just saw me as a part of something more. I was just a simple part.

The sky was covered in a thick layer of dark clouds. They wouldn't be able to hold their raindrops in for long; soon I'd be wet and cold. In some minutes I would regret going out; because I wasn't properly dressed. I hadn't even put my shoes on as I ran out of the door. I shivered as the light breeze upgraded to a cold wind.

After my parents had told me the news, all I could think about was to go and tell _him. _Something in me believed that he would have the answers. He would know what to do. How naïve of me. Why would he care? I wasn't of any use for him anyway. Just a team member. Just a partner. Was I even a friend to him? Sometimes I doubted it. I would never know what he truly saw me as.

The rain fell onto my skin, shocking me by its sudden coldness. My eyes shifted to my arm. My skin looked paler than usual, with the water now running over it. I now felt safe enough to let my tears fall. The raindrops in my face would cover the evidence if anyone would stumble over me. Not that I truly believed that anyone was awake at the moment, but I had become paranoid after all his bran washing. No matter what, I couldn't let him see my humanly weaknesses.

After letting the frustration out with the rain, I quietly returned to my home. Mom and dad sat up in the living room waiting for me. I merely glanced at them, before moving up the stairs and locking myself inside the bathroom. I was sure they'd leave me alone. I hurriedly cleaned myself up, undid my brown hair, and brushed my teeth.

As I covered my shivering body with the white bed sheets I heard mom and dad's voices outside my door. I knew they were discussing my reaction. How shocked could they be? They should have known I wouldn't want to leave Konoha.

The day that followed was like the days usually were in Konoha. _Sunny._ I wished the weather would match my emotions better. It would be much easier to be depressed if it was raining, or at least if the sun had been covered by clouds. This just made my day worse.

I left my bed undone and got dressed as quietly as possible. I would do anything I could to keep my parents sleeping, the last thing I needed right now was their worried faces and responsible speeches. I left the house without being busted, and felt a little better as the sun finally reached me and warmed my skin after the night's event in the rain.

I didn't really know where I was going. We weren't supposed to meet at the training grounds, and I weren't assigned any missions due to my parent's moving intentions. I weren't involved in those plans. They could move to the North Pole for all I cared, I would never leave Konoha.

As I strolled down the almost empty streets my stomach started demanding breakfast. I didn't have any money with me, so I couldn't go anywhere to buy food. I'd have to get it otherwise.

I was lucky. A certain boy, my age, with black hair and a green jumpsuit came walking towards me. When it came to breakfast, nothing could stop Lee.

"Hi, Lee!" I greeted as we reached each other. I put on my most normal smile and hid every sign of frustration and anxiety.

"Good morning, Tenten!" Lee greeted, with an overwhelmingly enthusiasm, as always. "How are you?"

"Starving actually," I almost felt a little bad for doing this, but I couldn't go home to eat. Mom and dad would try to discuss the idea of moving with me, and I didn't want to hear about the matter ever again in my life.

Lee's expression turned from cheerful to shocked. "Have you _skipped _breakfast?!" he demanded, clenching his fist dramatically in front of me.

I almost felt the need to back away from him, but kept my cool and my innocently nothing's-wrong-smile on. "Yeah, I were in a bit of a hurry," I said as I started rubbing the back of my neck – a bad habit.

"Fear not, Tenten! I shall get you something to eat this instant!"

Lee wouldn't let me stop eating before he was fully convinced that I was completely full. I tried to make him see that me being a girl; ate a little less than him, but he didn't see the logic in that. So when he finally set me free from his "most-important-meal-of-the-day obsession" I felt like I had gained enough weight to break the ground if I tried to jump.

Lee told me he had to run around Konoha a few times before meeting with Gai-sensei to train more, so he had to leave me. I weren't too sad about that. I hadn't told him about the horrible news yet. I just couldn't bring myself to ruin his good mood.

So I was once again strolling down the streets of Konoha by myself. I tried not to let my bad mood show on my face, knowing I wasn't very hard to read. I would have to avoid a certain someone until I had managed to get over the news; he would read me as an open book, even if I turned my face away from him.

Speaking of the devil; there he stood, shining in the sunlight like the human god he was. Was he walking towards me? No, he hadn't seen me (probably pretended he hadn't) and looked another way. I had to think quickly. Would he expect me to say hi? Or was this a sign? Did he want me to go away?

I stopped dead in my tracks. More people were walking around in the streets now, and someone bumped into me, but I barley noticed it. My brain was near a complete break down. How could I know what he wanted me to do? He never said anything, and he only had _one _facial expression. How could I ever make the right decision?

"Tenten?"

My inner conflict ended as he spoke my name with a confused voice. My eyes focused on his face. His pale skin, light eyes and dark hair. Human perfection.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why'd you ask?" I answered, and grinned sheepishly at him.

He lifted a very perfect eyebrow as he looked at me with suspicion. "You usually say hi when you pass me."

"I do?" I asked, and it all came back to me then. I and Neji were friends, of course I said hi to him! "Oh, yeah! Hi!" I grinned, secretly trying to look cute, and probably failing miserably.

"Hi," he mumbled and looked at me wonderingly.

_Damn. _He had probably noticed that something was wrong already, and soon he would start torturing me with questions until I broke down in tears. I bit my teeth together and tried to keep my cool. I had to put on my carefree grin, but I couldn't remember how to put it on!

"Hn…" he mumbled, and began walking up the street with his hands in his pockets.

I felt a little abandoned again. Was he just going to leave me like this? Or did he expect me to follow him?

"_Tenten?_" again with the confused voice. He had stopped in the middle of the street, and stared at me with one raised eyebrow, questioning me.

"What?" My hands found each other, and I began rubbing my arm feeling a little uncomfortable under his staring eyes.

"Aren't you coming?" his voice was dark and sounded annoyed and completely ignored the people that past him.

I needed a moment to think, then reality came back, and finally I could remember how my life was supposed to be. "Yeah! Sure," I ran up to him, and pulled him with me. "Are you doing anything special today?" I asked him, letting go of his arm when I was completely sure he would keep walking on his own.

"Not really," he said, looking right ahead of him.

He never said a lot of things at once. Sometimes he just needed some time, and then he continued what he was saying. Other times a short statement, or answer was all I'd ever get.

About an hour later we sat on a bench in the park. I knew Neji didn't really like being in the park. All the happy kids were probably too much positive energy for him to handle, but today he was doing a good job. I had bought an ice cream, due to the nice weather, but he had quietly turned my offer down. He wasn't the type for ice cream anyway.

I sat there with a satisfied smile on my face, and he sat besides me, resting his back against the bench with his eyes closed. I guessed he was trying to block the world out. A sudden urge to throw my ice cream in his face and run for my life occurred in my mind, but I managed to resist it.

Letting out a bored sigh I rested my back against the bench too. I let my head fall backwards and looked up at a huge tree, with long, strong branches covered in green leaves. The sun shone through the leaves, and gave the park a very peaceful setting.

How could mom and dad want to move away from here?

"What's wrong?"

My head snapped up, and I turned around to face him. He was leaning his arm over the back of the bench, turned towards me. His face was serious, no signs of any worry, as always. But at least he cared at some level. He wanted to know why I was acting weird, I knew that, but if I told him about mom and dad's plans now I would probably just break down in tears right in front of him and tell him stuff he never needed to hear. No, it would be better if I just kept my mouth shut.

"What are you talking about?" I asked and tried to laugh it off. He just kept looking at me. _Plan failed_. "Neji, seriously! Nothing's wrong," I said, and stuck my tongue out at him. I could see how his head jerked back a few inches. It always bothered him when I acted childish like that.

"You're not very hard to read, Tenten," he began, and I almost rolled my eyes. _Tell me something I don't know!_ "I can see that something is bothering you. Why don't you want to tell me about it?" His face stayed serious.

I had to swallow so my heart wouldn't get stuck in my throat. I loved it when he talked like that; it made me feel like he really cared about me. I knew it was a limited attraction, but it was _something_.

I sunk down on the bench, so my chin rested on my chest (very uncomfortable). "Nothings wrong." Why couldn't he just let it go? Oh, yeah, because he _knew_. "I'm… PMS-ing." _Out of all the bad excuses in the world..?_

I could feel how his face turned from serious, to confused and then to humoured.

"You won't be PMS-ing until at least another week, Tenten."

I stared at him in complete shock. I felt embarrassed over the fact that he knew such things about me. How did he know? Were his senses so powerful that he could _feel it_ when my eggs were loosening? What kind of _sick animal_ was he?!

"How the hell do you know such things!?" I demanded as I straightened up, and turned towards him.

He smirked, a sign that he was enjoying himself. "I'm smarter than you think."

"Or you're part _dog_," I spat playfully. "Go and tell Kiba. I bet you'll become best friends." I finished my ice cream and threw the tree stick away.

I could see how he rolled his eyes trying to look like he thought of me as childish, but actually was humoured by my genius comment. I was quite pleased with myself. Not only had I made that beautiful smirk appear on his perfect face, I had also made him forget about my complications.

We fell silent then. He didn't look at me anymore. He rested his eyes on the young children playing at the playground. I followed his gaze and realized that he was observing a little boy pushing a little girl as she sat on one of the popular swings. He just watched them as the girl laughed and the boy grew more and more tired of pushing her.

The comforting breeze turned to a light wind as we sat there. I searched my head for something to talk about; desperate to use the time I had with him properly. We were always training these days, and when we were training I rarely got any chance to actually talk with him.

"What are you thinking about?"

He blinked and turned towards me again. The look on his face told me that he was a little amazed that I actually cared about his thoughts. _What's so wired about that?_

"Those kids remind me of someone. Or I wish they would remind me of someone. They are living the childhood I wish I had lived," he said, his voice silent and bitter.

Of course I couldn't find anything to say. I knew he hated pity, but what else could I do? Frustrated as I was; I sighed and sunk down on the bench again. His eyes followed me all the time.

"I don't mean to whine about it all the time, but you did ask," he said, and leant back against the bench, closing his eyes.

"That's not it. I'm so tired of never being able to find the right words to comfort you," I mumbled. "You're too proud to let me pity you. If I tell you to toughen up, you'll probably hate me forever… and, eh…." I had planned to list up several examples, but those two were the only ones that popped up in my head, so I had to cut my ranting long before I had made my point. _Damn!_

I heard him chuckle silently. "Why do you keep thinking that I need you to say anything?" He asked; his voice filled with bitterness.

He made the sentence sound much more harsh than necessary, but I'd learned to live with it. It still stung a little in my stomach when he let his anger out on me, but I comforted myself in the belief that it was just words. It was a little harder when we were sparring. I couldn't just tell myself that it was _just kicks and punches_, and that he didn't _really_ _mean _to hurt me.


	2. Chapter 2 Sore Muscles

**A/N: **I need to tell you that there might be some grammar mistakes and stuff like that in this story, but I'm really trying to get it right. I'm not english... at all! So please don't kill me, I pretty much like to live. ^^"

**Chapter 2. **

**Sore muscle**

I had succeeded in not telling anyone about mom and dad's plans, and was now seated on my bed, leant up against the wall, staring longingly out at the calming sunset. I was dressed in only a very big T-shirt and my underwear. It felt oddly comfortable. Most of the bruises on my legs were fading by now (last weeks extra training lessons had caused my poor body quite a few healing projects).

While admiring the change in colour on the sky, I decided that the rain was a sign for me to go outside and rinse my soul. I could tell that it wasn't going to rain tonight, but next time I would be running outside, and rip my clothes off to feel the rain on my skin. … Scratch that one about the clothes, that's never going to happen.

I fell asleep in a very stupid position. My back was still rested up against the wall, my chin was resting heavily on my chest, and my legs were just wrapped together really uncomfortably. When I gained consciousness the next morning, I felt like I was ready for the grave. Every muscle in my body ached at my every movement. My neck was stiff, and just moving my head hurt. I groaned in frustration, and climbed carefully out of my bed and got dressed as quick as my tortured muscles would allow me to.

It took me an hour, but I managed to get out of the house, properly dressed, without mom and dad waking up. I didn't bother with breakfast, considering the fact that I most likely wouldn't be able to chew the food anyway. It felt like my chin was ready to fall off any time, due to my stupid sleeping position.

The pain doubled when I realized that we had a training lesson with Gai-Sensei, and I would have to either show up and ignore the pain, and then be looked upon as weak because of the pain that occurred with my every movement. Or I could just tell the truth and skip practise, and then be looked upon as weak because I wasn't able to join training. It seemed this was a one way ticked to weakness.

I sighed, and picked up the pace so I'd at least be at the training fields in time. Both Neji and Lee had already got there when I arrived. Lee was very busy with his warm up exercises, and didn't notice my extremely awkward way of walking. Neji, off course, noticed straight away.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. It was strange how he could ask such a question without letting any concern enter his voice. It probably would have hurt his image as a rock.

"No, I just fell asleep in a very stupid position," I said, and rubbed my left shoulder with my hand. "Now I'm really sore."

I could see how he frowned at me, probably thinking thoughts like "it probably doesn't hurt that much", "what kind of a bad excuse is that?" or: "jeez, what a girl!". I had to turn away from him as I found myself glaring. He was innocent until the opposite was proved, and until I learned how to read minds, I would have to convince myself that he didn't find me weak because of my gender.

We started the training as a team, Gai-sensei ordering us around, but soon Gai and Lee stormed off to do some ridiculously tough exercises leaving me and Neji alone. _At last! _

"How's your shoulder?" His monotonous voice broke the silence, and had me spinning around to face him.

"Much better! Can hardly feel it!" I said, and faked a huge grin. His perfect brows raised a few inches and his hard stare hardened. I felt shivers running down my spine – he was so perfect. I suddenly realized the cause of the doubtful look on his face: I were still rubbing the sore muscle in my shoulder, making it _obvious _to anyone that it was bothering me. _Damn! How could I not notice?!_

I pulled my hand away from my shoulder, and slammed it behind my back; as if trying to hide the evidence. "Hehee…" My dorky giggling was all that could be heard as he continued his staring-torture. "Neji… _Stop it.._!" I moaned after what seemed like centuries!

"Stop what?" he asked, and _finally_ blinked.

"Ughhh!" I just groaned in response. He knew exactly what I was talking about, and he knew that I knew. _Jerk._

"Do you want me to look at it?" He suddenly asked, and walked closer to me. The light breeze lifted his dark hair as he approached me with a soft look on his face. _Wow..! _

He walked up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders. I had to swallow my heart down as it jumped up and got caught in my throat. When he started to massage my shoulders with his strong hands, it felt _almost _like he was caressing me.

"Try to relax your body," he said, and rubbed the sides of my sore neck with his soft fingertips. I could barely hear what he was saying. All I wanted was to melt into his arms, and be like that forever. "You've really messed your muscles up," he commented after a while, breaking the one sided ice that was evolving – _I _was in paradise.

"Yeah…" I wasn't sure if he had heard my response, but my girly autopilot took control, and all I could do was feel his touch. "… Neji…" a silent mumble escaped my lips without me noticing.

"Hm?" My daze was shattered into a thousand's of pieces. _No…! I moaned his name! _What kind of drooling idiot was I anyway? "Tenten?" He sounded confused – or just annoyed… maybe both!

"Uh… I forgot what I was about to say… heh…" I said sheepishly and tried to turn to face him, but he pushed me back.

"I'm not done with your shoulders yet. As I said, you've really messed them up," he said, changing the subject. I breathed in relief and lowered my shoulders to enjoy the unexpected pleasure.

"Feeling any better?" he asked, his voice soft and a true pleasure in my ears.

"Yeah, it's great," I mumbled, my voice distant. His hands were moving so perfectly, like he knew exactly how, and where I needed him to rub. The familiar fear of him being a secrete mind reader struck me once again, but I managed to control it without tensing my muscles.

After a few more minutes he lifted his hands from my shoulders, much to my disagreement. "How's that?" He asked, even though he probably knew that my shoulders felt completely fine by now.

I turned around to face him again, and smiled widely at him. "I feel great! Thank you," I said and _wanted _to give him a thankful hug, but quickly backed away from that urge. Such an unexpected move might just cost me my life as his team mate.

Deciding that we had had enough training for the morning, we collected all our weapons, and strolled down towards the village again.

"You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

_Stupid mind reader… _"No," I said with a protective edge in my voice. "My jaw felt so broken when I woke up, that I didn't think it would be any good idea to use it for chewing."

"But training with it was a wonderful idea," he said, his voice even, but I could hear the sarcasm in it. And I could also see the spark of a cocky smirk run over his lips as he watched me from the corner of his pale eyes.

"You are being totally immature," I said and kept walking. "I'm the one who suffers, and I'm the one who decides what I can do, and what I can't." Knew I didn't make much sense, and the blank expression of his perfect face told me he didn't make any sense of that response either.

"To be honest, I don't think _I'm _the one being immature here," he said. _Annoying little genius. _We both kept silent then, walking side by side towards the now crowded streets of our village. _I'm never leaving this place. _

**A/N: **Personally, I like this.


	3. Chapter 3 First Kiss

**A/N **Alright, I personally, hate OC's . But they were required to make this story right, so forgive me.

**Chapter 3. First kiss**

Neji and I walked all the way back to the Huyuga-Mansion together. I was the only one talking, as usual. The sun was covered with a thick layer of clouds that promised rain. I looked up at them and realized that I would have to run back to the training grounds when they released their raindrops.

We stopped outside of his entrance. I didn't look at him, and something told me he didn't look at me either. I wanted him to invite me in, or something, but of course that was a fictional idea.

"I'm going to train some more _by my self_, now," he announced, his voice silent and melodic. I finally directed my eyes to his, and faked a quite convincing smile.

"'Course!" I said merrily. "I'm just going to do… _something_, anyway." My lack of skills in improvising in front of him was annoying. He raised his left eyebrow, looking at me with his arrogant expression as always.

"I'll see you later then," he said, and turned around without waiting for my response.

"Bye!" I called after him, just before he disappeared behind the big doors of his home. I sighed. Why did those moments have to be so rare? Why couldn't he be near me more often? I started, ever so slowly, to make my way towards… where ever I'd end up.

It was strange how I'd seem to lose my interest in the day when Neji weren't with me anymore. He was obviously the spark in my life. I needed him to be with me in order for me to work properly. I was officially addicted to a person. _Lovely. _

An hour later I was still walking around without a final destination in mind. The rain had broke loose from the dark clouds and were now falling onto my skin, comforting my aching heart. All this time alone had given me time to think, which was absolutely not good.

I wanted to go back to the training grounds again, but the voice of someone calling out my name, stopped me. I spun around looking for the source of the voice and spotted a blonde girl running towards me. I recognised her easily as one of my friends from back at the Academy, Miya. Her blonde hair flew with the wind behind her as she approached me. Her usual red ribbon kept the light bangs out of her face, revealing a pair of very blue eyes.

"Hey, Tenten!" she said again before stopping in front of me. She panted slightly as she straightened up and grinned at me.

"Hey, there," I said and waited for her to catch her breath.

"Okay, this time I'm _more than serious_! Jin is totally in love with you!" Her eyes sparkled slightly as she waited for my reaction that never came.

Jin was one of Miya's two team mates. He was quite attractive, but I wasn't really interested. Through all the years I had known him now, he had fallen "in love" with me four times. It was getting old, and I was absolutely not interested anymore. Especially since he had a tendency to make out with other girls, while claiming that I was the one and only girl for him.

Seeing the doubtful look on my face Miya grabbed a hold of my hand, like she was afraid I might turn around and leave.

"This time it is serious! He actually turned some other girls down just now, I asked why, and he said that he was tired of being such a player," she said, excitedly. "I think he seriously loves you!"

"Lower your voice!" I hissed and stepped closer to her. "How can you be sure that he's in love with me just because he turned some girls down?" I said, keeping my voice silent.

She rolled her eyes, and finally calmed down. "Because I know him, Tenten," she said, and clasped her hands together in front of me. "Please! Won't you at least meet him! Just one innocent conversation?" She begged, making her eyes look extra big and pleading.

I made a grimace and tried to look another way, but her puppy eyes had already won over me, and my will power was not really a power anymore. I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "_Fine_, I'll meet him," I said and crossed my arms over my chest, feeling sorry for myself.

"YES! Thank you so much!" She squealed and hugged me tightly.

I sighed heavily as she started pulling me with her towards the park. Her hand was tightly locked around my wrist, and there was no way I could break free. Or, I could, but it wouldn't have been a cleaver move. I just obeyed and followed her.

"Why is this so important to you, anyway?" I asked as we entered the park and she felt safe enough to let me walk on my own.

"Because you'd be the cutest couple ever!" She said, loudly, and started jumping slightly. I started wondering if she had been drinking coffee or something. "And you have to admit, Jin is kind of hot," she nudged my side with her elbow and grinned at me.

"Yeah, I guess he is," I sighed tiredly, not believing that I was actually giving him another chance. I told myself that I was only doing this to shut Miya up, but I somewhat enjoyed the thought of someone actually being in love with me. I just wished it were someone more reliable… like Neji. I felt my mind doze off as my head was filled with mental pictures and memories of him. I felt like I could remember every minute I had ever spent with him. The classes on the Academy, the look on his face when we met Gai-sensei for the first time, and all the missions we had been on together.

"Hey, Tenten."

I snapped out of my daydreaming when a male voice entered my ears. I looked up and saw Jin standing right before me. He was taller than I remembered. Was it that long ago since last time I saw him? His black hair was spikier than normal too. At least the colour of his eyes matched my memory of him: they were brown, like mine, only darker.

"Hi," I said, realizing that I had created a silence. Miya stood on my right side, almost jumping in the air.

"Miya, would you mind?" Jin said, his voice a little rude, but not enough to insult her. She just grinned wider, told me that she would see me later, and then turned to leave. I sighed, and doubtfully looked up at Jin again.

"So, was it something you wanted to talk to me about?" I tried, eager to get it over with.

He smiled sweetly down at me, like I was some adorable little child. "Actually I just wanted to see you. Feels like I haven't met you in ages," he said and lifted his hand to brush away some strands of hair from my face, but I was quicker than him, and did it myself before he got the chance to touch me.

"Well, we haven't either," I pointed out, and casually took a step back, averting my eyes from him.

"I've missed you, you know," he said, his voice was so silent and even, I had to admit to myself that he was acting quite convincing.

"Oh well," I sighed. "That's too bad." I still didn't want to look at him.

I heard him sigh. I looked up to see him turn a little away from me, his eyes glued to the ground. "I know I've been a jerk, Tenten," he sounded quite regretful. "But I don't want to be that anymore. I've always said that you are the one and only girl I want, and that is true!" He was looking at me now, stepping closer to me.

"But if that's true, how come you've made out with every living girl in Konoha?" I asked sourly, crossing my arms. "It seems to me like there are plenty of girls out there for you."

"I've kissed everyone _except you_, that is," he said, taking another step towards me. "And it is not _all _the girls in _Konoha_. It's all the girls in our year," he stated rolling his eyes like this was something I should have known.

"You know what? I'm really not interested," I said, and was about to leave, when he grabbed me by the wrist, and pulled me back. I glared annoyed at him, and he let go of my wrist quite quickly.

"Listen, I can change! And it's not my fault that girls like me!" He exclaimed, and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"What? So it's _my_ fault?" I asked, sarcastically.

"No! Or, well…" he hesitated, and looked away from me, probably trying to figure out how to get out of the mess he had created. "It's really hard to get your attention, you know! Nothing I do is ever good enough; you never get impressed over what I do! You're just too busy _drooling _over the Huyuga to notice anything that happens around you," he spat, clenching his fist at his sides.

I stared at him, completely shocked over what he had just said. "Could you lower your voice?" I asked, feeling a slight touch of panic in my chest.

"What? You don't want anyone to hear the truth?" He asked, his voice filled with jealousy.

"Listen!" I hissed, pulling him closer to me by his black collar. "I'm not interested in him that way..."

"Please! Don't give me that crap!" He cut me off, and slapped my hand away. "You've been in love with him since back at the Academy. Everything was always about how great Neji was!"

"Please, just shut up!" I yelled, desperate for him to stop talking about Neji. "Someone might hear you!" I hissed through gritted teeth.

Jin turned silent then. He just stared at me, with his dark, almost black eyes. He looked really hurt. My heart was beating so fast it was almost painful.

"Just tell me the truth," he finally muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I swallowed, and tried to regain control over of my pulse. "I'm not in love with him," I said, stubbornly, but couldn't look at him. I was lying. I was lying to Jin, and to myself. "I don't love him," I repeated. It hurt only saying it.

"Then why am I not good enough for you?" he whispered, afraid of my answer.

I just stared at him. I didn't even _have _an answer to that. I didn't want him because he wasn't Neji, but I couldn't tell him that. I just stood there with a terrified look on my face. I noticed how his right brow was raised as he waited for my response. I bit my lower lip, and bowed my head so he couldn't see my face. I was so scared that I might reveal the secrete that I couldn't even keep my breathing even. I had to say something, or else he would figure out that I was lying.

I sighed heavily. "You are good enough, that's not it. But…" I trailed off, what was I going to say?

"What?" A new hint of hope had entered his voice. I looked up at him in surprise and found him staring down at me with curious eyes. I swallowed to prepare my voice for talking.

"I'm… " _Think, Tenten! Think! _

"So it is _him_, then," Jin muttered quietly. His eyes dug into mine, the hurt look on his face made my stomach twist in guilt.

"You know what?" He said after a while. I could see how he was biting the inside of his left cheek. "I'll promise not to tell anyone about your feelings for him, if you let me kiss you."

My mouth fell open. I stared at him without believing a single word of what he had just said. "There are no feelings!"

"This is your only way out," Jin said, making his voice sound colder and harsher. "If you don't want the ice cube to know, you have to give in to me." He moved a little closer to me, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "'Cause you know what would happen if he found out? Right?" He smirked coldly at me.

I had to fight back the tears. So this was what happened when Jin didn't get the girls he wanted: he turned into an evil jerk. "Shut up," I hissed, and turned my head away from him.

"He'll push you away, shut down, and never let you near him again," he stepped back a little then, awaiting my reaction.

I didn't really react much. I just stood there staring intensely towards the ground. I couldn't let him tell anyone, even if it meant giving up my very first kiss to this jerk. I tried to tell myself that it wasn't that important, but it still felt extremely wrong.

"Fine," I said, my voice no more than a whisper. I didn't look at him as he came closer to me, and I didn't close my eyes when he put his lips to mine. I didn't care when he sneaked his arms around me and deepened the kiss. I just let him finish.

**A/N **I just picked two very random names for these to characters. I don't really like them anyway, and this will hopefully be the last we'll ever see of them.


	4. Chapter 4 Confrontations

**A/N: **I've written two different versions of this chapter, but I'm pretty sure this is the right one for this story. ... And if you'd ask me: I think this is a good chapter! Really worth reading! :D

**Chapter 4. Confrontations**

The next morning was horrible. My parents caught me while I was trying to sneak out, and they forced me to sit down and have a talk with them.

"Yeah, but I really have to get to training. You know how Neji gets if I'm late," I tried to excuse myself, but they would not let me go.

"Tenten, I understand that this is hard for you, but you have to understand that there is a reason to why we want to move," my mom said, folding her hands in front of her on the table. She looked at me with soft eyes, but I could see the struggle in them, she was struggling to understand me.

"We have found a much better place. The house is bigger, and you should have seen the garden! You'll have plenty of room to practise your aiming and – "

"There's plenty of room for training on the training grounds too," I cut my dad off. My voice was harsh and accusing. I felt myself glare at them, and it hurt them, but I didn't care. "What are you thinking anyway? Do you have the slightest idea of what you're doing to me? Do you have any idea how much I'd lose if we moved away from here?"

They both fell silent then. Mom pushed her brown long hair behind her ear, in an uncomfortable manner. Dad took a sip from his coffee – I could almost see how he was searching his brain for something to say.

"I want you to start packing your stuff tonight," he finally said, putting his cup down on the table. His eyes met mine, and for a second I considered attacking them with my weapons. I gritted my teeth together, and pierced my eyes into his. I wanted to scare him off, but he was a trained ninja, and not really easy to scare.

"You wish," I muttered, and stood up and left through the kitchen door as quick as I could. They didn't try to stop me, but I could hear them sigh in union behind me as I slammed the door shut.

The extreme anger I was feeling made my blood boil. I clenched my fists and tried to make my nails pierce through my skin, but they weren't long enough. As I walked towards the training rounds, my anger turned to sadness. Dad's words rang in my head, reminding me of the horrible future I had coming. My eyes were filled with tears, but I didn't let them fall.

* * *

I reached the training grounds, only five minutes late. Neji sat there, meditating silently, but the green clad duo was nowhere in sight. They would never be late – tardiness was considered a worse crime than any crime for those two lunatics. I figured they must have gone to do their own kind of training.

Neji didn't really give me any sign of noticing my presence, but I knew he knew I was there.

"Hi," I greeted, my voice high pitched and embarrassing.

He lifted one eyelid, looked at me, and closed it. "Hn."

I felt myself stiffen a little. He seemed to be in a very bad mood. Silently I began putting up straw dolls on the trees, so I could practice my aiming. The air wasn't very warm, and a cool breeze complimented it, making my skin tremble a little. I started throwing kunai after kunai, hitting bull's eye, after bull's eye, until I got bored. I began doing more complicated exercises, containing a lot of jumping and changing of direction while being in mid air.

If I hadn't had fathers order in my head, I would have enjoyed myself. The echo of his words just made me angrier and angrier, soon I was throwing so hard that the kunai's went right through the straw dolls, and sunk deep into the tree trunks. I focused all my attention on one particular straw doll. It took me half a minute to fill it with sharp weapons of all kinds. If it had been something living, it would have been dead now. _Very dead_.

I panted slightly. When I got really into my exercises; I had a habit of forgetting to breathe every once in a while.

"You are upset."

I moved my gaze slightly towards the bored boy sitting on the ground. He rested his cheek on his knuckle, supporting his elbow on his knee. His pale eyes were directed at my brown ones, searching me for any sign of what was wrong.

I sighed while bending down to pick up a kunai from the ground. I started spinning it around my fingers a little, focusing only on the sharp knife I was playing with.

"You seem to be in a fowl mood as well," I pointed out without looking at him. He usually didn't like it when I talked back at him. I didn't really care though. He'd survive.

I heard a silent grunt, and turned my back on him. I didn't really care to look at him when he was like this. Taking a firm grip around the kunai, I spun around and slammed it into the tree Neji was leant up against, hitting just an inch above his head. He didn't even flinch. I saw his mouth _almost_ forming into a smirk and offered him a playful grin.

"Neji, why the hell are you just sitting there?" I demanded putting my hands on my hips. I could see how he wanted to forget about whatever was bothering him, but didn't know if he should.

Sighing, he stood up and eyed me suspiciously. "Lee told me something, just before you came today," he said crossing his arms over his chest. "And I have to admit that it bothers me slightly." His face remained suspicious.

I could feel my upper lip twitch in confusion. "Okay… What did he tell you?" I asked, a frown appearing on my face.

"That he had seen you and Jin in the park yesterday. _Kissing_," he almost spat the last word, like it was poisonous.

I felt like my entire world had collapsed. He _knew?_ I opened my mouth to say something several times, but no sound ever came out. Neji stared at me, awaiting my wonderful defense that never came. My eyelids began blinking uncontrollably and my body shifted constantly.

"It wasn't really…" I began, not really knowing how to end that sentence.

"He forced himself on you?" Neji tried, raising an eyebrow. He didn't believe that for even one second.

"Well, no… But it wasn't… I didn't really want to," I stammered, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand, feeling my cheeks burn under his intense stare.

"So you just let him kiss you, even though you didn't want to," he said, like he had figured out the whole truth.

"No, it's complicated," I said, and tried to return his stare. The tension between us grew thicker and thicker by every second. Why did he care so much about it anyway?

"Tenten, I realize that you like the idea of having a boyfriend, but do you really think _Jin _is the right one for you?" He asked, monotonously. "How many times have he claimed to be in love with you now? Four? Five?" I bit the insides of my cheeks, fighting the anger that was evolving inside me. "And how many times have he hurt you? Four or five times, Tenten?"

"Since when did you care?" I spat. Who did he think he was? Questioning my ability to judge people like that? I knew who were the nice guys, and who were not.

"I don't want you to be hurt by that jerk again," he said, still without any emotion in his voice. His face remained arrogant and provoking.

"How many times do you think _you _have hurt me?" I shifted my gaze away from him, immediately regretting that question. I didn't need to look at him to know that he was hurt; I could feel it in the air I breathed. I heard it in the way he was breathing, and I knew how unfair it was of me to say such a thing. He never really meant to hurt me, and I had meant for that sentence to burn, really _burn_.

"I'm sorry. I –" he turned his back on me and walked away without one more word. I stood there searching my mind for a way to finish my apologize. "Wait!" I called after him, but he didn't even look back at me. "Neji, wait!" I repeated, but still he ignored me. I wanted to run after him, but my feet were glued to the ground.

When he was completely out of sight, I let myself fall to the ground. My world was falling apart, and no one cared to help me. What the hell had I done to deserve this anyway? Why did all this happen to me? Why did I have to fall in love with Neji, out of all the people in the world? Why did my parents want to move away from Konoha? This was my home! I cried out loud in frustration and got to my feet. Anger exploded inside of me as I slammed weapon after weapon into the straw dolls that surrounded me, until they fell apart, landing on the ground in a useless pile of straws.

Panting slightly I crashed my fist into the nearest tree so hard that I thought I heard something break. An intense pain swirled around my blood red knuckles, but I welcomed it and threw my other fist into the tree as well. I was completely sure that I had damaged my knuckles more than I should, but I didn't care. _Right, left. Right, left. _

"Tenten?"

_Ignore it. _Why did he care anyway? He never cared before. And why did we have to move? Everything was perfectly fine _here_. I wanted to stay _here_. _Right, left. Right, left. _

"Hey, Tenten?"

_Don't talk to me_! I didn't stop. I heard someone trying to get contact with me, but I couldn't stop. _Right, left. Right, left._

"Tenten, stop this!" A big hand took a hold around my shoulder and spun me around. Gai-sensei looked at me with a horrified look on his face. I panted. The air felt painful in my throat, making me cough a little. My entire mouth tasted of blood, and finally I could feel the true pain in my knuckles. My head felt dizzy, I was going to fall to the ground.

"Tenten, are you crying?" Lee's worried voice asked from behind Gai-sensei's broad shoulders.

I didn't answer. Lifting my hand to brush the tears away was impossible. My hands were completely broken. I couldn't move them. Looking down I could see how the intense pain made my arms tremble. I was bleeding too. The skin on my knuckles was completely torn and red, thick blood ran down my fingers. I felt sick to my stomach. I needed to lie down.

"Tenten, what's going on?" Gai-sensei asked worriedly, keeping his big hands on my shoulders like he knew that I would fall to the ground if he let go.

"My hands…" I whimpered, and felt my lips tremble.

"How long have you been doing this?" Gai-sensei asked.

"Are you Ok, Tenten?" I heard Lee ask with a small voice.

"Neji left…" I didn't know what I was trying to say. Nothing made any sense anyway. My vision became blurry, and dark dots blocked Gai-sensei's worried expression from my eyes. "I can't move…"

* * *

"She's waking up now," a voice said. I barely managed to open my eyes to see where I was. Everything was very white. Annoying beeping. _The hospital, of course. _

I heard myself groan, and tried to shift position, but my body was too stiff to move yet. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted something green coming towards me. Juding by the size of it, I knew it was Gai-sensei. I turned my head fully towards him, and struggled to get used to the light.

"Tenten, what on earth were you doing out there?" He demanded, sounding a lot like a father trying to talk some sense into his daughter. I guess I was a daughter for him in some ways. I was his responsibility after all.

"I don't know," I groaned tiredly. "I was upset." My hands felt numb, and I almost didn't dare to look down at them. They were heavily bandaged so I couldn't move my fingers at all. It was probably for the best.

"You got us really worried there!" he scolded, and sat down on the chair besides my bed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. I felt sorry for making them worry about me. "They managed to heal your hands, but five minutes more of that nonsense you were doing and you might have damaged them forever," he said and sighed heavily. "What the hell were you doing? Were you _trying _to break your hands? 'Cause that sure as hell wasn't any training technique," he pointed out and looked angrily down at me.

"I know…" I mumbled, ashamed of myself. I had just slammed my fists into the tree, welcoming the pain, never thinking about how to hold my hands or anything. Had I been trying to hurt myself? I couldn't remember.

"Where was Neji?" he asked suddenly, probably angry with him for not being there to look after me. Like I needed that.

I grimaced. "We had an argument," I said silently. "He got mad at me and left."

Gai was silent for a long while. "You never argue…?" He said confused. I smiled a little. It was true. Neji and I usually were god friends, but I just had to ruin everything. "Is that why you were so upset?" he asked. "Because you had an argument?"

"It's complicated," I didn't really want to tell Gai about the whole incident with Jin. "Am I going to have to stay here for long?" I asked.

Gai rose from the chair. "No I think they'll let you out in some hour, they just need to make sure your hands get the rest they need," he explained. "I'll go find a nurse." He patted my head before he walked over to the door and left me in silence.

I hoped they'd let me out quickly. I needed to find Neji and apologize. He had never been mad at me before, so I had no idea of how to make it up to him.

* * *

Gai-sensei was home with my parents now, informing them of what had happened during training today. I was told to go straight home when the nurses allowed me to leave, but I ignored it. I was headed towards the Huyuga-mansion, desperately trying to figure out what I would say to Neji when I met him.

My hands still felt a little numb, but I could use them more properly now. The nurses had told me to take it easy for a couple of days, and never to pull off a stunt like that again.

"_If you absolutely must hit hard objects, like trees, you surely know that there are certain techniques required so that you won't damage your hands like you did today. Haven't your sensei taught you how to hold your hands when… " _The nurse had kept on talking like that for ages. Gai-sensei had managed to stop her by _exploding_ when she had commented his skills as a sensei, showering her in stories about how great a ninja I was, thanks to his training, and that all this happened only because of the blossoming of my hormones, and that I had become confused after the fight with Neji… or something like that. Sometimes it was hard to understand what my sensei was talking about.

The sky was completely covered in clouds now, so no one really noticed that the sun was on its way down. It didn't take me long to reach the big mansion - building up enough courage to knock on the door was a whole lot longer process. I stood in front of the big doors trying to decide if this was a good idea or not. Figuring I didn't have any choice, I knocked on the door, forgetting about my sore knuckles and cried out loud when the little knock was enough to cause me _pain_. I blew on the red skin over my knuckles and held it close to my chest trying to calm it down.

A maid opened the door, looking like she wasn't sure if she'd heard anyone knock or not. When she saw me, she smiled and welcomed me in, recognizing me as Neji's team mate. I told her that I needed to see Neji. She led me through the long corridors of the Huyuga family's big home and stopped by Neji's door.

I told her thanks and waved her away before I prepared for the worst to happen. Forgetting about my hand again I knocked on the door once and flinched at the pain. I grimaced and spun around a little while I tried to keep any cry of agony inside.

"Tenten," an even voice muttered from behind me. I turned around slowly, trying to be stoic, like him, about the pain in my hand. I held it tightly against my chest, and bit my bottom lip until it finally faded away a little. Now, what the hell was I going to say to him?

He stood leant up against his doorframe, keeping a hand on the door, ready to close it any time if necessary. His eyes were only half interested as he stared down at me. His body language told me everything: he was still mad at me.

_Here goes nothing_. "I'm really sorry about what I said earlier today. Please don't be mad at me. I can't stand it when your mad at me – " I had intended to say more, but he smirked and stepped to the side, motioning for me to enter his room. I blinked confused, but obeyed and stepped inside. I watched him warily as he closed the door behind me.

His room was like all the other rooms in the mansion. The floor was wooden and cool against my bare feet. His bed was positioned by his only window; dressed in white bed sheets. He had a very wide desk, covered with scrolls of different colors and various papers and books. Left for the desk stood a tall bookshelf, not completely, but very close to filled with books. He obviously read a lot.

"What?" he asked from behind me. I spun around, and faced him nervously, not sure if he had forgiven me yet or not.

"It's just… I've never been in your room before," I said quietly, folding my hands behind my back to keep them from fiddling. I tried to offer him a smile, but he just rolled his eyes in return. He pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning on, and walked over to his bed and sat down.

"I'm not mad at _you_, Tenten," he said after a tense silence. His eyes stared out in space, not really focusing on anything. I stared at him in surprise. He sighed heavily, like preparing himself on doing something he really didn't want to do.

"Neji?" I asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Come here," he said, and clapped his hand on the bed besides him. Hesitantly, I sat down besides him, shifting my body so I could see him better. He turned towards me too, and met my eyes with such a troubled look on his face it made my heart get stuck in my throat.

"What's wrong?" I asked shakily and swallowed my heart down again.

"I'm sorry for hurting you," he said, looking directly in my eyes. The honesty in his eyes was a rare sight, and it caught me off guard. I stared at him, completely captured in the moment. " I know that I hurt you a lot, but I honestly never mean to. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at myself for being such a bad friend to you," he explained and took my hand in his, holding it softly. He took in a huge amount of air before he continued. "I promise I'll be better for you."

My heart was pounding violently against my chest. I stared at him, my mouth hanging a little open, not really believing what I heard. "So… You're not mad at me?"

"No," he said, a ghost of a smile flickered over his face for a short second. "I can't be mad at you for pointing out the truth," he said, and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I flinched away from him as my recently broken hand began burning with pain again. I gritted my teeth in annoyance and breathed out in relief when the pain finally faded. Looking up again, I found Neji looking at me with pure confusion on his face.

"What?" he asked at last, looking at my hand, wondering how the friendly gesture could have caused me pain.

"Long story," I said, and positioned myself on the bed besides him again. Great! I had almost broken my hands forever, thinking he was mad at me, when he actually just was mad at himself.

"Why did you just leave then? If you weren't even mad at me?" I asked, eyeing him curiously, secretly leaning a little towards him.

"I needed to think," he answered shortly. I was quite sure that that was the only answer I would get, and replied with a simple "Oh." We sat in silence for a while, turned towards each other, neither of us looking at the other. "So…" he began, making me look at him again. "Are you and Jin - ?"

"No," I said hurriedly, before he got the chance to finish the sentence. "There's nothing going on between me and Jin," I bit my lip nervously, feeling the blood rush up to fill my cheeks.

"But you did let him kiss you?"

God, why couldn't he just let it go already? "Yes, but it was the worlds most meaningless kiss ever!"

"Good," he said, leaning a little backwards on his hands. "You deserve far better than him."

"Oh, yeah?" I said, feeling my lips twitch up into a playful smirk. "Like who?" He sat up again flashing me a wonderful smirk before he sneaked his right hand behind my neck. My entire body froze to ice when I felt his hand begin to lead my head towards him. My heart beat like crazy, and I feared it would explode if he pushed it any farther. But he didn't stop. He was actually doing this; it wasn't a dream, and I was only far too eager to play along. I closed my eyes and felt his hot breath on my burning cheeks. I could feel how his lips were almost touching mine and –

"Neji! Training!" Someone called from outside the door. We both pulled apart looking separate ways, embarrassed of what had just happened. I had to work hard to regain control over my pulse.

"That is Hiashi-sama," Neji explained after a little while. He rose from the bed and walked over to his desk, turned around and leant against it, eyeing me carefully. I wasn't that brave. I kept my eyes on the floor, desperately trying to hide my blood red face. I should have known it was too good to be true. "I have to train with him now," he muttered, and I knew that was a code for "you have to leave now," which wasn't really any problem. I'd like to run away from him forever right now, anyway.

**A/N: **So far I've got _one_ reviewer, and I love you! ... but it wouldn't harm anyone if more of you guys wrote me a little review from time to time. It would at least make me happy :D


	5. Chapter 5 A Lot of Yelling

**A/N: **I've never been more sure: This chapter contains a bunch of grammar and writing mistakes. The reason why is because there is a lot of arguing and yelling in this chapter, and I got quite carried away while I wrote it, and now, when I read it, I can't find anything - but I bet that if I read through this after I've published it, I'm gonna find all the mistakes...

** Chapter 5. A Lot of Yelling **

The air was too thick to breathe when I walked out of the Huyuga's home. Neji had followed me to the door, but I hadn't even looked at him when he said goodbye to me. My face was burning, turning bright red for everyone to see how embarrassed I was. I nearly ran out of their entrance, not looking back before I heard him close the door behind me.

I couldn't believe what had happened. Neji, the guy that laughed no more than twice a year, had tried to kiss me. Something inside of my head told me that this was not possible. I must have hurt my head during training or something, because Neji would never take initiative to kiss me… or would he? No! I knew him better than that! My brain was twisting inside my head, trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

Entering my house through my window, I noticed that dad had left a few suitcases in my room for me. I slammed the window shut behind me, strode over to the suitcases and threw them out in the hallway outside my room. I closed the door violently attempting to make it perfectly clear that I was not going to obey my father's orders this time.

"Tenten, pack your stuff!" I heard dad yell from down stairs.

"Never!" I yelled back, and sat down on my bed waiting for what was to come next. A few moments later the door was opened and my very annoyed looking father entered my room. He closed the door silently, and walked over to me, sitting down by my side. I didn't look at him; he annoyed me.

"Tenten, I don't want to be mean, but you really don't have any choice here," he said calmly, like he was talking to a little kid.

"Why not?" I muttered, clenching my jaws to prevent myself from snapping.

He sighed and kind of positioned himself a little further away from me. "Because I've already paid for the house."

I gawked at him. For a second my heart stopped beating, and I felt like I was dead. "You… How could you just...? I can't…" I stuttered, completely unable to complete my sentences. His face turned apologetic. He pushed his dark hair back so it wouldn't fall into his eyes – he looked so much like me, but yet he was so extremely stupid, that he actually thought that he could just buy a house in another village without my approval? Did he actually think that I wanted to move away?

Pulling myself together I rose from the bed and turned to face him with my hands on my hips. I wasn't angry, I was _furious_.

"How could you do that without at least asking me if I wanted to move or not?!" I yelled. At first he didn't say anything. His eyes were open wide, shocked by my outburst, even though he must have seen it coming.

"I found it on my way home from a mission, it's so perfect –"

"Dad, it's my _life _we're talking about here! You can't just change it like that because you found a pretty house somewhere else!"

"Tenten! Stop yelling at your father!" My mom snapped from the door. I turned around surprised to see her there; I hadn't even heard her coming up the stairs.

Dad rose from the bed, and put a hand on my shoulder, which I quickly backed away from. "Don't touch me."

"Tenten!" Mom scolded, moving towards me.

"This is hopeless. She's too mad to understand now…"

"I understand everything, _dad_! You are the one that don't understand!"

"Tenten, lower your voice!" Mom nagged from besides dad.

"Why?! I'm mad!"

"It's not like we can leave you here alone –"

"Yes you can!" I said, and felt a breeze of hope entering my heart. "I can stay here! You go on and move," I urged and stared at them ready to get down on my knees and beg.

"That's not gonna happen, Tenten!" My mom said sternly, and pulled at dad's shirt, trying to make him say something too.

"What kind of parents let their fifteen years old daughter live alone in a village days away from where they live?" Dad asked rubbing his face with his hands. I could see how he hated the situation he had gotten himself into.

"Yeah, and what kind of parents would make their fifteen years old daughter move away from all her friends without even asking her if she's okay with it?!"

"Tenten –"

"STOP SAYING MY NAME ALL THE TIME!" Both of them shut their mouth, frowning. I knew I had never yelled at them like that before, but they really got on my nerves. "So it is okay that I go out on missions and almost get myself killed every week, but it's not okay that I stay here alone?" I asked unbelievingly. They didn't answer. "Is it okay that I go to training and get completely beaten up every day – but living …"

"Stop this," my mom said and pulled dad with her out of the door. I heard him sigh as he made his way down the stairs. Mom lingered by the door until she heard him turning on the TV downstairs. "Tenten, you'll easily make new friends in the new village. You don't have to worry about that," she said, her voice slowly calming down. "How's your hands?" She asked after a little pause. She was used to me being in the hospital for short periods, because of the though training I usually had to endure with Neji.

"They're fine," I sighed, and felt the frustration boil inside of me. Why couldn't they just listen? "But, Mom –"

"Good, darling," she said, and smiled caringly at me. Then her face changed to tired. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, and turned to leave. "Just stay in your room," she said, and closed the door behind her. I was left in silence, and didn't feel any better at all. I crashed down on my bed, and stared up at the ceiling.

"Thing's can't get much worse now," I muttered to myself. Sighing heavily I rolled over to my side and hugged my pillow tightly. If no one else was going to support me, I might as well do it myself.

Morning came and I left the house without disturbing my sleeping parents. Depression hung over me like a dark, leaking cloud as I slowly made my way towards the training grounds. Everything was wrong right now: Everything would be wired between me and Neji today, Lee still thought that I was dating Jin, and my parents probably hated me for my out burst the day before. Gai-sensei was disappointed in me because of my carelessness the other day. Jin was ready to use my feelings for Neji against me any time and was probably bragging about the kiss he had _taken_ from me to everyone in the village, and Miya probably believed that Jin and I were together. Great!

As I walked down the streets, I felt like the few people that were outside gave me weird looks. I wasn't sure if it was true, or just my paranoid imagination, but I still felt very uncomfortable. Was it that damn obvious that my world was falling apart? Could people see that I was working on a serious depression?

I walked all the way to the training grounds without talking to anyone. Escaping the streets felt like a relief, but Neji's cold eyes glued to me made me just as paranoid.

There was no wind. The trees hovered over us without motion, and the sun was shining like usual. I knew it was going to be a hot day, in more than one way. I was preparing for Neji's bad mood, he probably felt like killing me for what had happened the day before. The thought sent shivers running down my spine. Although I knew him better than anyone, he could be quite scary sometimes.

"Lee, today I shall teach you a brand new technique!" Gai-sensei exclaimed eagerly, grinning proudly down at Lee who started cheering in excitement. "Neji, Tenten, I want you two to train on your own today. You both need to practise your fighting abilities!" He said, throwing his fist up in the air, trying to make us motivated.

I sighed. Why couldn't Gai-sensei teach _me_ a "brand new technique" for once? I really didn't want to spar with Neji today. He still stared at me making me want to sink into the earth. _Stop staring, damn it. _

Lee and Gai-sensei ran off to somewhere, leaving Neji and I alone. I collected all the courage I could, and lifted my eyes to meet his stare for the first time that morning, and it almost made me scared. His face was so blank. Absolutely no hint of what he was feeling could be found in his pale eyes, he just stared at me, and made me even more confused than I was before.

"Are you okay, Neji?" I asked hesitantly, wrapping my hands around each other. He seemed so far away; so distant.

"I'm fine," he finally said, snapping out of his daze. He took some steps backwards and got into his fighting stance. I did the same, and felt my insides cringe at the way he bore his eyes into mine. There was something he really wanted to say, but still he kept it inside.

Without another word he leaped at me with full speed. I quickly made my escape, flipping up into the trees, and landing on the ground behind him. Thanks to all the times we had done this now, I knew his every move and could easily dodge them – but he did them faster today, and it became harder and harder by each passing minute. _Damn, he's in a bad mood! _

After a good while I was feeling exhausted, but Neji just kept on attacking me. Gaining a little distance, I pulled out a scroll from my weapon holster and was about to summon a great deal of sharp tools when he suddenly disappeared. I froze, my hand gripping tightly around the red scroll I was holding. I was panting heavily, which wasn't really a surprise; I was fighting a genius after all.

His hand shot out from behind me, caught my hand and pinned it up against a big tree with force. I gritted my teeth in annoyance; how did he do that? I didn't even notice him coming!

"I think Gai meant for us to practise our abilities in close combat. Are you trying to cheat?" His even voice asked behind me, way closer than I was prepared for. Unwillingly I let go of the scroll, and tried to pull my hand away from his tight grip.

"Neji, let go," I demanded and slammed my other hand towards his cheek, but he easily blocked it with his free hand. Great. Now he had both my hands.

I heard him chuckle silently behind me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his cocky grin appearing on his beautiful face. "Come on, Tenten. Are you really this helpless without your weapons?"

_Jerk. _

I had no idea of how I did it, but somehow I managed to kick his feet out from under him. He fell to the ground, and almost dragged me with him but I managed to jump away from him. He got to his feet on a second, and gave me a look of pure annoyance, which I gladly returned.

We leaped at each other at the same time and crashed violently. He slammed me into the ground several times, but I always got to my feet and charged with all I had. I managed to knock _him_ to the ground a few times too… after a while.

"You are very persistent today," Neji grunted while dodging a quite forceful kick of mine.

"I'm always persistent, you're just too cocky to pay any attention to me," I said, and jumped into the air, in an attempt to get over him and knock him out from above. Of course he saw it coming, took a hold around my leg and threw me into the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs. _That was a very bad move. _

"We should take a break," he muttered and panted a little.

"No, not yet," I protested and crawl up into a sitting position on the ground.

"Tenten, you are doing a lot of stupid moves. You are tired," he said, like I didn't know that I was tired.

"I didn't do a lot of stupid moves, I did _one _stupid move," I protested again, and crossed my arms over my chest glaring at him. Man, he was annoying today.

He sighed and walked over to me. His eyes stared down at me with the same arrogance as always. "You need to train more on close combat," he stated, putting his hands on his hips. Who did he think he was? My sensei?

"Who are you to tell me what I need to –"

"I'm your sparring partner and team mate, and I think I know better than anyone that you are not making much progress when it comes to fighting. You are perfect with weapons, but you need more than that to become a good ninja."

I stared up at him; I felt how my blood turned cold and my skin turned pale. I dug my fingertips into the dirt, and bit my lower lip. I knew what he was doing, and it hurt more than I had imagined. He was pushing me away.

"Neji…"

I had nothing to say. He must have realized what I felt for him when we almost kissed. What a fool I'd been thinking I'd get away with that. I should have screamed or something – not tried to kiss him _back_.

"You have to get stronger…"

I couldn't hear him anymore; my heart was pounding too loudly against my chest. I couldn't lose him; I needed him! I got to my feet and stumbled a little before I ran off towards Konoha again. What was I gonna do? He knew that I loved him now, and he was going to push me away. He didn't want me anymore, not as a friend, a team mate or anything; this was only an excuse.

I had almost run all the way out of the woods when Neji dumped down in front of me. I yelped in surprise and almost fell to the ground in surprise.

"Tenten, what the hell is going on?" He asked, his face filled with disbelief. "Why are you acting like this?"

I panted, the tears never stopped coming, and I had nothing to say. Neji took a few steps towards me, not sure how to handle the situation. "I'm just trying to offer you my help," he said with a silent voice. He reached out and put a light hand on my shoulder.

Now I felt confused again. I didn't look at him because I didn't know what he was doing. I had been so sure that he was going to push me away, that he wanted me to leave, but why did he follow me? Was it to make sure that Gai and Lee wouldn't become suspicious?

"I don't need your help," I muttered silently, and tried to push past him, but he pushed me back in front of him.

"You're not leaving until you tell me what's going on," he demanded, never letting go of my shoulder.

"I'm just really emotional right now because I'm PMS-ing and –"

"I _know _that you're not PMS-ing, Tenten. You'll have to find a new excuse," he said his lips stretching out into just a thin, annoyed line across his angel-like face. "What's going on lately? You've been acting really weird!" His voice got louder with annoyance. I tried to dry off some of the pathetic tears on my face, but they just kept on coming. "Why are you crying?" He asked, his voice still loud and angry.

"Because I'm confused!" I finally answered a little too loud and backed away from him, so he would let go of my shoulder. "And I don't know what to do anymore."

"What's going on here?!" Gai-sensei roared from behind some big trees. He came half-running out and stopped in front of us with a worried look on his face. Lee followed close behind him.

"Tenten, are you alright!?" He asked loudly. "Are you crying again?!"

"Again?" Neji asked, confused.

"I can see that you're upset, but don't hit the trees, Tenten!" Gai-sensei ordered, his voice stern and fatherly again.

"What?" Neji looked from the young green clad, to the older one, not understanding anything of what they were talking about.

"Neji, what did you do to her!?" Lee demanded, putting his fists up in front of Neji's face.

"God, he didn't do anything, okay!?" I yelled, clenching my fists at my sides. Why did everything have to be so horrible these days?

"Then why are you crying, Tenten?" Asked Gai-sensei, coming closer to me.

"And why are you yelling?" Lee asked also stepping towards me.

"Um, excuse me?" A new voice spoke up behind us.

All four of us looked in the direction of the voice and saw Sakura standing there.

"Sakura- chan!" Lee exclaimed and forgot about me completely. "What brings you here?"

"I was sent by Tsunade-sama, she's got a mission for you," Sakura said hesitantly. She looked from one to the other; unsure of exactly what she had interrupted. I could see that she was shocked to see the tears on my cheeks, and lowered my head shamefully.

This just couldn't get any better...!

**A/N: **The end of this was a little random, I know, but I couldn't get up with any other way to end that extremly akward situation. I'll try to write better next time!


	6. Chapter 6 Going Out on a Mission

**A/N: **Today I realized something... Maybe it'd be clever to have disclamer here! Just so no one'll think that I actually own this. Not that I think anyone would be stupid enough to think such a thing, but still, I don't want to get in trouble.

_Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, or any of the characthers in this story. Not even those two OC-idiots, 'cos I don't like them, someone else can have them. _

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**Chapter 6. Going Out on a Mission**

"I know that you're not supposed to take any missions now, Tenten, but this is an emergency. I've talked to your parents, and it is okay for them," Tsunade said looking at me with the mission description in her hand. Besides me, both Lee and Neji gave me questioning looks from the corner of their eyes. I gulped nervously, afraid that Tsunade might say something about the moving issue. The tension between Neji and I just kept growing. I was glad that Lee had sensed it and placed himself between us.

"You are to travel up to the Village in the Mountains and escort their only heiress to their neighbour village. There's been several attacks on their village by a gang of ninjas," Tsunade said while looking over the mission description. "Obviously these ninjas are very dangerous and the Main Leader of the village is very concerned for his daughters life, and wants you to escort her safely to the neighbour village, and make sure she's safe there until they have succeeded in taking the gang down."

Her eyes lingered on the papers in her hands for a while, like she didn't quite like what she saw. "They want to do the fighting on their own, but need _our_ ninjas to keep the heiress safe…?" She mumbled to herself, frowning.

I could see Lee and Neji exchange suspicious looks, but no one of them looked at me. A slight pang in my chest made me bite my lower lip. I felt like I had ruined Neji and mine's relationship forever. I should have just told him. Then he would have understood why I was in such a bad mood all the time, and he wouldn't be so confused right now. I was only making things worse by not telling them.

After the briefing, we stayed in the corridor outside of Tsuanade's office. We usually did that to plan our mission, but this time, our meeting was kind of half hearted. Neji didn't look at me one single second, and Lee just kept on glancing worriedly from me to Neji, making me feel really uneasy. I had really messed things up now.

"We'll meet at the village gates at 7 am tomorrow morning," Neji said after a long, really uncomfortable silence. I sighed heavily as he turned around to leave without looking at me or saying goodbye. He really was pushing me away after all then.

"Tenten?" Lee looked at me with a worried expression on his face. "Are you okay?" He stepped closer to me and put a supporting hand on my shoulder. I wished he would give me a hug or something; I really needed it now.

"I'm just dealing with a lot of problems right now," I answered, my voice just above a whisper.

"Aren't things going too well with you and Jin?" Lee asked, squeezing my shoulder friendly.

"I'm not going out with Jin, Lee," I mumbled unbelievingly. How could he believe such a thing? "He's crazy."

"But I saw you kiss –"

"No, you saw _him_ kiss _me_," I said, giving him _the look. _"I didn't do anything."

Lee was silent for a while, obviously tying to figure out what had actually happened without asking me. "Why did he kiss you?" He finally asked.

"Because he's a blackmailing jerk," I said, and started heading for the stairs. I needed some air before I started yelling at him. My frustration was reaching a level no one wanted to experience.

"What has he done to you?" Lee asked hurriedly, catching up with me halfway down the stairs. "I don't like to se you this down, Tenten," he said and grabbed my wrist, forcing me to stop. I took a deep breath without looking at him, trying desperately to steady myself. I looked up at his big, worried eyes. It was nice to see that someone cared about me. Lee was a good friend.

This was it. I couldn't keep it secret anymore; I had to tell him.

"It's mom and dad. They're…" I trailed off. It felt like I was giving in if I said it out loud. Like I was admitting defeat. I guess I wasn't invincible after all. Lee didn't say anything; he gave me time to think – to collect myself. One more breath…

"They've bought a new house in another village." I swallowed the sob that tried to break through and watched Lee's face turn from worried to shocked.

"You… You are leaving Konoha?" He asked shakily, not daring to believe it. I averted my eyes from his. He stared at me with his mout hanging slightly open.

"They're forcing me," I explained. "They won't let me stay here alone," I blinked a lot to keep the sudden tears inside. I couldn't allow myself to be this weak. I was a ninja, god damnit.

"But you can't leave us…! Nothing's gonna be the same if you leave!" Lee said, clenching his fists and raising his voice.

"Please, don't yell," I whispered, my voice breaking. Keeping the tears inside was even harder when Lee folded is arms around me and held me in a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his ridiculous, green jumpsuit.

"Please, don't tell Neji," I whispered into his chest. He was silent for a long while, like he was considering it.

"Okay.

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At 07:00 the next morning, all three of us stood ready by the village gates. Lee hadn't mentioned the moving plans, which I was grateful of, but he lacked some of the usually overwhelming enthusiasm. The Village in the Mountains wasn't very far away. It only took a day to get there at full speed, so we decided to take it easy and spend the night in the woods, close to the mountains the village was build on.

After walking, running, jumping the entire day my feet were killing me, but I managed to keep the pain away from my face. Neji still didn't talk to me, and I was now completely sure that he was pushing me away. Slowly he was squeezing me out of his life. All I could do was to sit on a rock and wait for his next order. That was the only way he'd talk to me; by giving me an order. Great!

"The sun's going down! Who'll be the first to keep watch?" Lee asked, jumping down from the tree he had been sitting in.

I was about to say that I could do it, but Neji was quicker than me.

"I'll take the first watch, then I'll wake you up, Lee," he muttered, not looking at me for even a second, making my heart ache in pain.

Lee and I rolled out our sleeping bags just a little away from where Neji sat by the small fire we had put up. I lay down furthest away from our team leader; he was a little scary, being all "I-don't-talk-to-you-anymore-ish". I wasn't used to it, and it _hurt_.

Neji was so beautiful where he sat. The small amount of light from the fire made his face look so gorgeous. His dark hair hung lazily down his back, looking so much like silk. His eyes were so serious, like always. The beauty of his pale orbs as they stared into the fire was almost too much for my bleeding heart. What wouldn't I give to sit besides him, instead of lying on the ground, completely ignored?

"I hate my life," I muttered out loud, not realizing it before I saw the expression on Lee's face.

"Don't say such thing's, Tenten!" he scolded, and sat up so he was on the same level as me.

"I'm sorry, it's just that Neji hasn't talked to me since yesterday," I whispered looking away from Lee's intense stare. "I don't know what to do anymore." Lee didn't say anything at first. I noticed that he glanced over his shoulder, looking at Neji for a brief second.

"Why is he mad?" He asked after a while.

"'Cause I'm weak and pathetic," I answered truthfully laying down. I could see some of the dark sky between the thick layer of leaves above us. The stars shone brightly. Lee lied down besides me, keeping his eyes up towards the stars as well.

"That's absolutely not true, Tenten. The only reason to why you've been acting wired lately is because you might have to leave Konoha," he whispered. "Neji knows that you normally aren't like this, maybe he's just frustrated because he don't know how to help you?"

That was an angle I hadn't looked at it from before. I shifted my eyes over to Lee and then to Neji, considering the theory. Neji obviously knew that I was attracted to him, thanks to me being completely unable to control myself when he tried to kiss me, but was that enough for him to start pushing me away? Suddenly I felt a little less sure about it.

"You have no idea how much I wish that was true," I said quietly before I closed my eyes and rolled over to the other side, trying to fall asleep. Of course I ended up thinking about Neji again. I imagined sitting next to him, like I would have done before everything had been ruined. I would have been just as serious as him, only to make him happy.

I woke up by Neji rolling out his sleeping bag next to me. I glanced groggily over my shoulder, and saw that Lee's sleeping bag was empty. The green beast was now seated by the fire; allowing the God of perfection to get some sleep too. I rolled over towards Neji again, closing my eyes. I heard him lay down and pull up the zipper of his sleeping bag, before everything became silent.

After some minutes I realized that there was no way I'd get any sleep as long as Neji lay here besides me, not when I still didn't know if he was mad at me or not. I had to ask. I just had to get it out of my system. The sooner, the better, right?

"Neji?" Damn, this was going to be the biggest mistake of my life. "Are you mad at me?"

He was silent. Had he heard me? Of course he had! Either he was ignoring me, or he was searching his brain for a wise enough answer to give me. My heart stopped beating while I waited for the reply. I held my breath and secretly crossed my fingers, hoping he'd at least say something to me. He couldn't be asleep already, that wasn't humanly possible, especially not for such a tense person as Neji.

"No. Go back to sleep, Tenten," he said sternly.

Yes! He had talked to me! His beautiful voice had said something to me again, and he wasn't mad at me! But did this mean that he wasn't pushing me away after all? Did this mean that he accepted the fact that I was crushing on him? The questions never stopped floating into my brain, and I hadn't gained anymore sleep when it was my turn to keep watch.

Lee crawled into his sleeping bag and fell asleep instantly. I spent most of my time admiring Neji's sleeping face. He looked peaceful, which was a rare sight. Now I just had to figure out a way to make things okay between us again… and, eventually, tell him the truth. I'd have to tell him that I was leaving.

Neji was the first to wake up when the sun finally started to crawl back up on the sky again the next morning. I watched him as he sat up and yawned cutely. A smile formed over my lips as he turned his head towards me and just stared at me for some seconds.

"Good morning," I said, my voice silent and not really worth trusting. He didn't answer me, which caused another pang in my chest. I watched him roll his sleeping bag together and stuff it back into his backpack.

"Why didn't you sleep last night?" he asked standing right in front of me, only the remaining after the fire separating us. The harshness of his tone made me jump a little.

"I slept…" I trailed off. I couldn't tell him that I stayed up all night thinking about him. If that came out he defiantly shut down. I stared up at his tall form, my mouth still a little open from talking. He looked down at me with pure annoyance in his eyes. What could I say. "Eh, I just…"

"If you tell me that you were PMS-ing again, I swear I'll…"

"No, I wasn't going to say that," I cut him off, absolutely not wanting to hear the ending of that sentence. I stood up, trying to gain some time to get up with a good excuse. "I know that I've been acting wired lately, but there's a reason..."

"ALRIGHT! Shall we climb the mountains at full speed and arrive in the village before noon!?" Lee's voice yelled enthusiastically behind us. We turned around just in time to see him shove his sleeping bag down into his backpack, and then jump over to where we stood.

"Yes, we're leaving now," Neji said, forgetting about me completely.

"But, Neji," I tried to regain his attention, but in vein. He turned around and started walking hurriedly towards the mountains.

"Not now, Tenten," I heard him mumbled while shoving his hands into his pockets. Lee looked at me questioningly, finally realizing that he had interrupted something important. I gritted my teeth in annoyance and pushed past him to follow my team leader.

We had to climb the first part of the mountain, but as we got higher up we found a very little road that, according to Neji, would lead us right to the village. While we were walking I started accusing myself for being a total idiot for thinking that just because Neji spoke six words to me last night, the whole tension thing between us would be over. _Nothing _was that easy.

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**A/N: **This was supposed to be longer, but I figured it would be better to save the good stuff for next chapter. Bwaha, can't wait to write it. Again, sorry if there are any really stupid writing mistakes here!


	7. Chapter 7 The Village in the Mountain

**A/N: **These last couple of days I've been out on our cabin, enjoying the extremly nice weather the summer has brought us here in Norway, and that is why I've used so much time writing this chapter. Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews, and keep reading and reviewing - 'cause that's what keeps me alive and writing :D

Disclamier: I don't own anything, except for my rediculous OC's and the idea of this story.

**Chapter 7. The Village in the Mountains**

The village in the mountains was the most beautiful place I'd ever been. It looked much like Konoha, only smaller and way ahead of us when it came to flowers and vegetation. It seemed like anywhere we turned we were faced by thousands of different flowers, growing up the house walls. There were trees everywhere, and in the middle of the little village there was a tiny park, where some boys were playing soccer. I'd never guessed that a village on a mountain could be so green!

"Where are we meeting with the village leader?" Lee asked as we walked up what looked like the main street.

"I'm guessing in that building, right ahead," Neji said monotonously, pointing towards the biggest house in the village, on the other side of the park.

The village leader was a big man, dressed in a huge amount of robes, all in different colours. He was pretty much bald, but a long, white beard decorated his chin. He invited us in to his office, so we could discuss the mission.

"Take a seat in front of my desk, here," he said as he rounded the dark, wooden desk and sat down in a green armchair. He folded his hands on his lap and leaned heavily into his chair, sighing. "The village I want you to bring my daughter to lays by the foot of the mountain…"

I couldn't focus on what he was saying. My eyes kept zooming in on Neji who sat annoyingly far away from me, with Lee working as a barrier between us again. He was so focused on what the Village Leader was saying that he didn't even care about giving me a short glare for staring at him – 'cause I knew that he knew. He always knew. He was a mind reader, except for the fact that he didn't know he was. He was more of a body reader actually… Even though it sounded more wrong than anything I had ever described him as.

"We need to keep my daughter safe from the bandits until we've taken them down," I heard the Village Leader say. I shifted my eyes towards him. His eyes had drifted away from us, and were now staring out into the room.

"And you are sure that she'll be safe there?" Neji asked monotonously. The old man looked at him a few seconds, like he hadn't completely understood the question.

"Yes… The bandits are attacking _this _village, our neighbours have never been attacked," he explained, leaning over his desk, looking important.

Neji merely nodded his head. I could see that his arrogance was annoying the Village Leader a little. I smiled an unnoticeable smile, praying that Neji would never lose his killer attitude.

"Could you bring my daughter in here, please?" The old man asked his servant kindly. She nodded her head hurriedly, and walked out of the door, clumsily leaving it slightly open. "She's not used to spend much time with boys, so I need to ask _you_ to take care of her," he said, looking at me. I quickly snapped out of my _all-Neji-daze _and put on my professional ninja face to impress the Village Leader.

"Of course, sir," I said, and bowed my head politely. I felt like I had saved the situation pretty well and allowed myself another glance towards my silent team captain.

The door opened behind us, and the servant from before stepped into the room. All three of us turned to see who had entered, and was surprised to see the beautiful girl that stepped into the room.

"Shinobi of the hidden Leaf Village, I want you all to meet my only child, Amaya," the Village leader announced, proudly, behind us.

Amaya was of a rare kind of beauty. Her face was pale and looked so clean, her eyes was really, _really _blue, and her mouth was tiny and red. Her hair hung lazily over her shoulders. Of course she was blonde too, the exact opposite of me. Her head had a round, child like shape. She was annoyingly pretty.

She smiled weakly towards us, like she was shy, and then she stepped farther into the room to stand by her father's side behind the dark desk. I kept my eyes on her the whole time, and noticed a slight change in her facial expression when she laid her eyes on Neji, who only looked at her for a few seconds before fixing his serious gaze back on the Village Leader.

_What…?_

"When do you want us to leave, then?" Lee asked, speaking for the first time during our time in the office.

"First thing in the morning," the Village Leader smiled. "But there will be no horses, or anything that might rise suspicion. You will travel by foot."

Amaya seemed to be slightly bothered by that last statement, but didn't complain. I'd just have to deal with it if she turned out to be a typical princess-type.

Dawn raced in like a lightning, and Neji had still not spoken to me. My cloud of depression was once again soaring above me, making the sun unable to cast its beautiful sunlight on me.

A bunch of servants escorted Amaya to the Village gates, and would not leave before they were completely convinced that we were fully capable to take care of her on our own._ Jeez, they really loved their heiress…! _

Amaya did as I expected, and stuck to me as we began to walk down the same road we had come. She didn't say much; even tough I tried to communicate a little with her. I shrugged it off and decided that she probably was a silent and shy person after all.

After a whole hour of walking I realized that she was having difficulties with keeping up with our pace. I slowed down so she wouldn't be alone, but Neji and Lee kept their pace.

"Are you okay - ?"

"Yeah, fine," she said, and finally met my eyes. "Just call me Amaya," she said kindly before I got to say any more. I wanted to ask why, but she looked away from me and placed her eyes dreamily on something ahead of her. I frowned a little, following her gaze to the extremely sexy figure of Neji, six meters ahead of us, and felt my blood freeze to ice.

_Oh, no…! _

Was she staring at Neji? _My _Neji? I had noticed something in her eyes when she looked at him in the office the day before, but could it truly be that she was looking at him? Like… _checking him out_?

Pff! That would never happen. She didn't even know him after all, and to someone who didn't know him; he might appear kind of scary. Heck, even _I _found him scary sometimes! This little princess couldn't seriously think that she would have any chance with him.

Or could she? What if she really did like him? What if he liked her too? The brutal truth was; if he didn't find her attractive, he might be gay, 'cause Amaya was the prettiest girl I had ever seen – and Neji was _not _gay. This was horrible! I couldn't compete with her! I felt ugly standing next to her. She was going to take Neji away from me!

_Noooooo!_

"Tenten!? Are you alright!?" Lee's loud voice broke through my panic. I snapped out of it and lifted my eyes to look at him. He and Neji had stopped to wait for us. "You look like you're about to puke, or something!"

_Gah, come on, Lee! Just a little louder now, so they can hear it on the other side of the mountain too! _

I saw Amaya make a little more distance between us, with a wary look on her face.

"I'm fine, Lee," I sighed and picked up my pace. "Just thinking about something very_ bad_." Amaya followed me, but I could see that she was struggling. "Amaya, what kind of shoes are you wearing?" I forced myself to ask, and tried not to sound too poisonous. She looked at me confused, but lifted the skirt of her dress anyway, revealing a pair of very high heals. I bit the insides of my cheeks. No wonder she was struggling! "How far were you planning on walking in those?" I asked, and tried, _really tried,_ to hide the edge in my voice.

"I don't know," she said weakly as we approached Neji and Lee, who were still waiting. She let go of her dress so it would cover her legs again. "I don't have anything more fitting for this kind of travelling." She looked much like a kid, standing with her hands folded in front of her and a guilty look on her angel-like face.

"Someone should carry her the rest of the way. She cannot walk with those shoes!" Lee said, and nearly dragged her onto his back, but Neji was quick and managed to stop him before he traumatised her too much.

"I think it would be more appropriate if Tenten took the heiress on her back. That was the Village leader's orders after all; that she was in responsibility of her during this mission," Neji said, and gave Lee a cold stare.

Amaya looked at me, and then to Neji, making me feel worried again. I wanted to stick her head down in the earth, so there was no way she could look at him anymore.

"Maybe a _man_ should carry me. I might be too heavy for a girl," she mumbled looking me up and down.

I could not believe what I was hearing. I was revealed to see the shocked expression on Neji's face. At least _he_ knew that I wasn't some weakling that couldn't take this _branch_ of a girl on my back.

"_Excuse me_?" I said, and put my hands on my hips defensively.

"Don't worry," Neji said, hurriedly, before I managed to add any more rude comments. "I think Tenten is capable to carry more than twice your weight. She can carry you easily," he gave me a warning glare, before he started walking again, turning his back on us. I sighed, but took control over my anger nevertheless.

I ended up carrying the heiress all the way down to the Village by the foot of the mountain, and I wasn't even sweating. I tried to act extra unaffected by the efforts, so that damned princess would understand that she had underestimated me, but she only had eyes for Neji. She literarily never looked at Lee or me. It was starting to annoy me… More than before.

We had to check in on a small hotel in the village. The people there recognized Amaya as their neighbour village's heiress, but they didn't make too much fuzz about it, luckily. I booked two rooms, one for Amaya and me, and one for Neji and Lee. When Amaya realized that I was going to be her roommate she started hinting that she wanted Neji in stead. Suppressing a glare, I told her that this was her father's order, and that it was our duty to complete this mission the way he wanted it.

I really wanted to talk to Neji, but my main priority was to keep Amaya away from him. It was five in the evening when she started asking for dinner for the first time.

"Hey, Tenten? I'm really hungry," she said. She was seated on the big bed, her back leaning up against the wall.

"Do you want me to bring you some food from the restaurant?" I asked without looking at her. I was seated on a chair on the other side of the room, as far away from her as possible.

"No, I want to eat _in_ the restaurant," she said with a tiny voice that was supposed to sound adorable, but it disgusted me. I sighed and got up on my feet.

"Fine," I said, and opened the door, signalling for her to follow. She got up pretty fast and exited our room in a second. I noticed that she was looking around in the direction of Neji and Lee's room. She really was desperate.

We were lead to a table for two by a tall man that worked there. Amaya didn't take too long to decide what she wanted, and ordered like I imagined a princess would order. She even wanted a bottle of wine, but I was quick to stop the waiter from writing it down.

"But… I want wine," she whined as the waiter returned to the kitchen in the back of the local.

"Yeah… How old are you?" I asked, raising a brow at her.

"Sixteen," she said and looked away. A pout was slowly entering her lips.

"You're not old enough to drink. Besides, if we get attacked –"

"Ugh, I'm older than _you_!" she said, raising her voice. What kind of defence was that?

"That doesn't make you eighteen," I started, feeling myself starting to doubt her sanity. "Besides," I tried once again. "If we get attacked, I'd rather have your blood completely alcohol-free. Which means no hangovers, or drinking at all."

She stared at me with her lips slightly parted. "… Why?" She asked, her voice unsure.

"We're not taking any chances," I said, shortly and took a sip of my glass of water.

"But you're drinking!" She said accusingly, pointing dramatically at the glass of water in my hand.

I stared at her for a while, not getting her at all. "No drinking of _alcohol_, Amaya," I said, unsure if it was the term "drinking" she had misunderstood, or that she actually thought that it was alcohol in my glass. "This is _water_."

She looked from the glass, to me and back to the glass again, her eyes wide and confused.

"Do you go out a lot?" I asked, putting the glass down.

"No," she answered truthfully and looked at me with questioning eyes. Note: She _looked _at me.

"I see," I mumbled. I wanted to ask if she had ever tended school too, but I realized how rude that would have been; so my mouth stayed shut.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Amaya asked when the waiter had come with her dinner. She started eating as she waited for my answer.

"No."

"Are you in love with someone?"

I rolled my eyes; she was really annoying. It took her some time before she realized that I wasn't going to answer, but eventually, she got the message.

"Do ninja's often have girlfriends?" She asked. I could hear how she tried to sound casually. I knew her evil plan, and I was not going to make things easy for her.

"Not really," I was lying, but found it surprisingly easy in front of Amaya.

There was a short pause. She took her time to chew her food before she continued her secret Neji-digging.

"Has your team leader ever had a girlfriend?" She averted her eyes from mine as she asked. I could easily see how her cheeks turned to a bright shade of red.

"Eh," I hesitated. If I said no, she would most likely go for it, and maybe even make him like her – but if I _lied_, and said that he had a girlfriend, my beautiful team leader would be forbidden fruit, and she would hopefully give up and stop staring at him all the time.

"Well?" She urged, tired of waiting. _Oh, to hell with it!_

"He's engaged actually."

My stomach twisted in guilt. _Engaged?!_ It had just blurted out of me. I couldn't have stopped it even if I tried. But it was truly worth it. The shocked expression on Amaya's face was close to priceless in my eyes.

"From birth actually," I said, clenching my fists under the table. _Shut up now, Tenten! _"And she is pregnant." _Stop now! _"With his child. That's why they're getting married so young. Pride and all that, you know." _Oh. My. God. _

Well that certainly made Amaya shut up. She didn't look at me anymore, of course. She was just flipping her food around her dish with her fork, a miserable look on her face.

I, on the other side of the table, was panicking on the inside. What the hell had I just done? Claiming that Neji Huyuga was engaged to his nonexistent pregnant fiancé!? What if Amaya told anyone, and the rumour spread? I was going to be murdered by the entire Huyuga-clan for putting out a rumour like that about one of their most talented family members!

_Great!_

**A/N: **Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors!


	8. Chapter 8 Attacked

**A/N: **I am not entirely happy with the beginning of this chapter, but I think it'll do for now. Thanks a bunch for all the wonderful reviews! I really love you guys!

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the Naruto characters.

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**Chapter 8. Attacked**

I felt extremely anxious when Amaya and I returned to our room upstairs, after her dinner. If we ran into Neji on the way, I would probably die of shame and embarrassment for what I had said to Amaya. She seemed to believe everything I had told her though, and now she was acting like her entire world was falling apart. If anyone's world was falling apart here, it was mine. And it was falling fast and brutally.

The funny thing was that I actually was a terrible liar. How on earth could she believe what I had said? I decided that either she was the only living person on earth I actually could lie to, or she was a complete moron. The last one was the most trust worthy of the two.

"Tenten!" Lee's loud voice yelled from down the hall.

"What?" I asked, and felt alarmed. I stood in front of our door; key in hand, ready to open the it, with Amaya right behind me when Lee came running towards us.

"Neji wanted to talk to you! I'll take care of the Heiress while you speak to him!"

He wanted to talk to me? This did absolutely not sound good. He was going to yell at me. He was going to kill me. I mentally told myself to get a grip while I gave Lee the keys to our room and headed down towards their room. Room number 16.

Lee and Amaya disappeared behind the door and I was left in complete silence. I knocked on the door in front of me, calming all my trembling nerves. Neji didn't answer, so I opened the door slightly, to see if he was in there at all.

"Neji?" I asked as I peered through the crack of the door.

"I need to talk to you," he said, his back turned to me. He was looking out of the big window, staring down at the streets. I entered the room fully, and closed the door behind me, praying that he wouldn't say anything awful. Neither of us said anything at first. The tension filled the entire room making it slightly hard to breathe normally.

"You've been acting weird lately," he pointed out, finally turning towards me, leaning his back against the window frame.

I gulped nervously, but nodded my head yes. I started fiddling my fingers, feeling my heart throb faster and faster with each passing second. _Please, don't kill me! _

"Why? What's going on?" He asked, his face serious. I could see how he was struggling to understand what was going on in my head. "You used to tell me everything – even those things I _absolutely _didn't care about, you told me."

I couldn't look at him. The way his eyes bore into mine was too much for me; I was too emotional these days. "I know," I muttered, my voice just a silent whimper.

"What's wrong? Why won't you let me help you?" He asked, moving towards me. He stopped an arm length away from me. His lips were stretched out in a thin line across his face, frustration was written all over him. "_Talk _to me."

"I can't," I pushed out of my lips and wrapped my arms around myself, not daring to lift my eyes towards him. I could feel how he was staring at me, how he was trying to read me with his super-Huyuga-eyes.

"Why not?"

"You won't understand." I gritted my teeth and prepared myself for the thunder of anger that was to come, but it never came. Confused, I lifted my head, warily watching his facial expression change from frustrated to _hurt_. It broke my heart.

"Try me," he said silently, not giving up at all.

"Neji –"

"Hey!" His voice came louder, surprising me as he took a strong grip around my upper arm, and pulled me towards him. I stumbled a little, but regained balance quickly. "This time you are going to tell me _exactly_ what's going on, and I don't care if you think I'll understand it or not. _Talk_," he spat and glared at me. I tried to push away from him, but he would not let go.

"Let go," I tried, but his grip just tightened around my arm, and his glare just kept on growing more and more annoyed. "Neji, stop!" I demanded, and was about to give him a nice punch in the face, but of course he blocked it easily. He spun me around and pulled both my hands behind my back holding them there firmly.

"Just tell me what the hell's going on, Tenten!" He yelled, his strong voice making my body feel small and fragile. I tried to break away from him, but it was impossible. His hands were completely locked around my hands.

"Fine! Fine, I'll tell you!" I gave in, and already felt my heart start to die. I had no idea what I was going to say, or how he would take it, but I didn't have a choice anymore, he was seriously losing his patience with me. He finally let go of my hands, allowing me to turn back towards him again, although I'd prefer not to look at him at the moment. My eyes were glued to the floor as I took one deep breath before I dared to speak.

"I know I've been acting wired and not like myself," I swallowed down some more air, steadying myself. "It's just that I'm so angry and… and sad! Everything's just so god damned wrong." Neji was dead silent as I spoke. I didn't look at him – if I did, I would break down in tears immediately. "Mom and dad have… They have bought a new house, in another village," I was pushing every word out of my mouth, as I struggled to keep the tears inside. "They won't let me stay in Konoha alone."

I breathed out. I had said it, and now I felt completely miserable. Neji didn't say anything, I couldn't even hear him breathing. Hesitantly I lifted my gaze to meet his, and couldn't believe the look he was giving me. He looked completely horrified. I'd never seen so many emotions in his face at one time before, and it had me completely speechless.

"You're moving?" He stuttered.

I couldn't believe that he was stuttering. My heart was going crazy inside my chest, making it almost painful to breathe in and out. I blinked away the tears that was filling up my eyes and nodded my head yes.

"I've tried to talk to them but they won't listen," I muttered, my voice sounding more pained than ever. "I don't want to move away…" I trailed off.

How was it possible to use my voice to speak when all I wanted to do was cry out in pain? The look on Neji's face just made everything worse. Now he was filling me with guilt too! Guilt for leaving. A silent sob escaped my lips, making my shoulders tremble. It was impossible. I was crying, and no one could stop it. The tears were falling like waterfalls. I covered my face with my hands, feeling humiliated by them.

Neji didn't say anything. He slid his arms around my shaking body and held me tightly, allowing me to cry on his shoulder. I gripped his jacket tightly, and bit my teeth together, trying to stop the sobbing, but failed. I felt his silent breath on my neck; it was some sort of a comfort to me. His hand stroke my back, and slid up my neck. I felt his fingers in my hair. I felt his hand caress the back of my neck. I felt my heart ache at the thought of leaving him.

"I don't want to leave you," I sobbed into his chest. His arm tightened around my waist, but he remained silent. "Please, say something," I begged. I needed to hear his voice. I wished he would have a solution, that he would know how to stop my parents from moving, but of course that was way to much to ask.

"I don't want you to leave, either," he muttered against my shoulder blade. It sent shivers running down my spine, making me stiffen a little.

It felt like we stood like that for hours before I managed to calm down. The sobs faded, and I was able to relax my muscles again… kind of. I blinked away the last river of tears while the love of my life softly, almost not noticeable, kissed my neck. I wondered if I had fainted, and that this was just a dream. I swallowed down the last remaining of the sobs, and took a few deep breaths to calm my heated body.

"This is not very appropriate thing to do while being on a mission," he muttered, sending his hot breath on my skin, making my cheeks burn. Something in me ordered me to pull away from him, but my fingers would not release his jacket. "We should go back to our duty."

"Yeah… I should pull myself together," I said, my voice shaky and not trust worthy at all. "We shouldn't leave the Heiress with Lee for too long either," I pointed out, my eyes glued on my white knuckles.

"I think he can handle it, though," Neji said, his voice low and silent. His strong arms were still wrapped around me, giving me a strange feeling of protection. I felt completely safe with him now.

I carefully lowered my head onto his shoulder, taking in his sent. It felt wonderful. It felt perfect. His hand slid down my back, resting on my hip, making my heart jump inside my chest. I swallowed nervously, but kept my cool.

"Am I making you uneasy, Tenten?" he asked monotonously, as always. It made me grin, not towards him, I kept my head bowed so he couldn't see my extremely flustered face, but I grinned.

"You're the uneasy one," I said and giggled silently at my own childish reply. I heard him chuckle under his breath. He wasn't uneasy at all. I could feel how relaxed he was, I felt it in the way his hand was caressing my back.

He reached up and led my head upwards so that he could look at me. I took one step back, never letting go of his jacket. His pale eyes stared down at me, never giving me even the slightest hint of what he was feeling, or what he was thinking about. He carefully brushed away the last traces of the tears that had been on my cheeks. Slowly he put his hands on mine, forcing them to let go of his clothes and then he held them up between us. The touch of his hands was calming to me. He made me feel relaxed for the first time in ages.

He tilted his head to the side, and bent down towards me. I could feel his lips close to mine, but never touching me. His face was so close, but no matter how good his cheek felt against my cheek, it couldn't stop me from wanting his lips on mine. I tried to turn towards him, I tried to kiss him, but somehow he made me miss every time.

"This is stupid," he whispered, as he let go of my hands and held my head softly instead.

"It's way stupid," I said, and tried to lean in for a kiss, but he made me miss by just a few inches again. His fingers caressed my throat. I had to bite my lip to prevent any inappropriate sounds to escape my mouth. I half closed my eyes, and let him do what he was doing. The air in the room seemed to have gotten much hotter since I had entered.

"You can't move away, Tenten," he whispered and kissed my cheek softly. His fingers were moving slowly against the skin on my throat, making my skin almost tremble under his touch.

"I know," I answered. I was so caught in the moment that I didn't even know what I was saying. I would just let him have his way, no matter what it was.

"You have to stay with me."

"I will."

My heart got caught in my throat when I felt his hands slowly move down from my neck and towards my chest. I could feel how my heart was beating faster and faster, going nuts with passion. I was breathing louder, it was embarrassing, but there was nothing I could do about it. He teasingly caressed my breasts with his fingertips, and kept on moving down so he could wrap his arms around my waist again.

"You shouldn't let me do this," he whispered in my ear. His lips kissed me like butterflies up and down my neck.

"I know."

A scream, followed by the ear deafening sound of an explosion made us break apart. We didn't have to say anything to know what was going on. Both of us stormed out of the door, completely forgetting the heated moment. The corridor was filled with smoke, and made it hard to see anything.

"Come," Neji said, and grabbed my hand. I knew that he had activated his byakugan, and was leading me towards me and Amaya's room. "Lee!?" I heard him yell as he dragged me through the opening where our door should have been. I stumbled over some piece of wood lying on the floor. That was probably all that was left of the door.

"I'm here!" We heard Lee yell. Neji let go of me, and moved through the thick smoke. I couldn't even see him anymore. The smoke stung against my eyes. I had to close them, or I'd be blind the rest of my life.

"Where's the heiress?!" I heard Neji ask Lee, his voice loud and alarmed.

"They took her! The bandits! They threw in a smoke bomb, took her, and then everything exploded!" Lee explained loudly. I could hear just by the sound of his voice that he was blaming himself.

"Tenten! Move forward towards where the window used to be, the entire wall's broken down there. We have to jump out!" Neji ordered.

I did as I was told, and began walking towards where I guessed the wall would be. I crashed into the bed, and struggled to get over it before I finally reached the end of the room. I used my hands to guide me, and found my way over the last pieces of the wall before I fell unexpectedly fell and crashed violently into the street outside of the hotel. I groaned loudly from the pain the impact had caused me. I had to blink away a lot of tears before I could take in my surroundings more clearly; the smoke was obviously meant to blind the opponent.

Neji jumped down from the room, with Lee on his back, landing way more elegant than me, just a few feet away. I hurriedly got to my feet as Neji put Lee on the ground.

"Are you okay, Lee?" I asked worriedly, and let him support his weight on my shoulders.

He grinned and gave me a thumbs up as he struggled to regain his balance. "Never better," he said and let go of me, ready to stand on his own again.

"I can see them, they are moving east, toward where we camped before coming here," Neji said. The veins in his face were visible on his face as he used his byakugan to find the attackers. "We have to get moving."

All three of us jumped up on the rooftops and started running towards east, jumping from roof to roof.

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**A/N: **I was supposed to make this longer, but I felt like this was a good place to stop. As you probably know, a review has never killed anyone, and certainly not me either. I'd love to hear what you think about this, 'cause I'm not entirely happy about the way I wrote it.


	9. Chapter 9 Revealing Jealousy

**A/N: **I've never finished a story... in my entire life! But this one seems to be something different. I know how it'll end already, and I just can't stop writing! I'm out on our cabin these days, and I have little to nothing to do, which means a lot of time to write, and to be honest: it's so great!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the naruto characters.

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**Chapter 9. Revealing Jealousy**

Hanging from the top branches of a tree I took in my surroundings. Neji and Lee were positioned around the bandit's camp, well hidden behind the thick layer of leaves. Together we had them surrounded, and from the look of it; they hadn't realized it yet.

I did a few acrobatic moves, and lowered myself to another branch, closer to the ground. I moved carefully, so they wouldn't hear me. I had spotted Amaya tied to a three at the far end of their camp. Neji was closer to her than me; it would be his job to get her in safety when Lee and I ambushed the bandits. I was just waiting for Neji's signal.

We were dealing with five bandits. One of them, the one who probably was their leader, sat silently by the fire they had put up, and sharpened one of his kunai's. The sharp sound of it made my fingers twitch a little; to me, it was the most beautiful sound ever. He was a huge man, with enormous muscles, revealed by the black, sleeveless shirt he wore. He wore huge combat boots, that didn't look very appealing to me – a kick from those in the gut would probably… I didn't really want to think about that. His head was completely hairless, which revealed a huge scar the went up left side of his head. A typical bad guy-look.

The four others were all slimmer than him. They were obviously trained ninjas, but their bodies were more elegant than their leader's. One of them, with black spiky hair and special, blue eyes was pretty good looking, but the rest of them were nothing special.

Finally I heard the sound of a branch breaking; Neji's signal. I jumped out of my hiding place at the exact same time as Lee, and threw five kunais towards the two closest bandits, pinning them both to the tree behind them.

I got a quick glance of Lee attacking the huge guy with full force, before the good-looking guy and the last one of the gang charged at me. Knowing that I wasn't too much of an opponent at close range, I jumped away from them, creating distance so I could summon my weapons and do what I was best at.

The ground was shaking while my faithful kunais and shurkens was crashing down on my two opponents. It seemed I had surprised them with my weapon attack. Most men didn't think of me as a weapon expert. Too bad for them. I grinned as I landed on the ground. That one guy lay in the dirt, with weapons stuck in his body. He was bleeding a lot, and groaning from the pain I had caused him. Men were babies.

But where was that other guy? The one with black hair? I spun around, trying to spot him, expecting an ambush, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell...?" I muttered looking around. My heart was pounding heavily and fast with adrenalin. I bent down by the obviously weaker guy on the ground. His eyes followed me warily. "Where's that other guy?" I asked, my voice harsh and dominant. Behind me I could hear Lee and that big guy's fight. The man was groaning loudly from pain and by the sound of it, I was pretty sure Lee was winning.

"Where is he?" I asked again, shaking the man's shoulders slightly.

"That traitor is probably miles away by now, " the man muttered weakly, and pulled a kunai out from his shoulder. "Man you surprised us there, sweetie," he coughed hoarsely, and pulled out more weapons from his abdomen.

I ignored the last part and sat up, trying to spot Neji. He had probably taken the Heiress to somewhere safe, and didn't pay attention to our fight here. The two bandits I had pinned to the tree were slowly freeing themselves; I had to stop them. I gave both of them a good hit in the head, making sure to hit a certain point on their forehead so they'd pass out without any serious damage. Neji had taught me that.

"Tenten! We should tie these guys up and let the villagers find them!" Lee said behind me. I turned in time to see him dust off his hands, one foot on the big guy lying on the ground besides him.

"Yes!" I agreed and flashed him a smile. Fighting helped getting the frustration out of my system. It was nice to knock out some bad guys now and then. Lee and I tied them up and dumped them near the village before we ran back to the now ruined camp. We waited there until Neji returned with Amaya tightly clinging to his left arm.

I almost had to laugh at the wonderful expression on Neji's usually unaffected face. He looked like he was ready to bite his arm off to get the Heiress off of him. I could see how his upper lip was twitching annoyed, and how his eyes hesitantly glanced down at the blonde as if to check if she was about to let go of his arm any time soon.

"Amaya, please back off _a little_," he said as politely as he could manage.

"No! I don't trust those two! You are my only hope!" She yelled dramatically and tightened her grip around his arm. I had to roll my eyes at her, she really was pathetic. Neji, on the other hand, was having major problems controlling his anger. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as if he was trying to imagine being somewhere else – somewhere peaceful. I'd seen it before.

"I'm sorry, but you are stopping my blood from reaching my fingers," he said coolly, and threw out his hand elegantly so Amaya lost her grip around him and fell to the ground.

I allowed myself a silent giggle. Amaya looked completely horrified. She probably wasn't very used to being rejected, but if she absolutely had to start crushing on Neji, she'd better get used to it.

"Should we move back to the village?" Lee asked, putting his hands on his hips, looking at Neji.

"Yes, that would probably –"

"NO! Absolutely not! I'm completely exhausted, and extremely traumatized, can't you guys see that!?" She asked loudly. She really was a poor sight, sitting on the ground, her dress torn and her usually pretty hair all messy and suddenly unshiny.

Neji, Lee and I sighed in union, and silently agreed to camp there for the night.

"I'll collect some wood for the fire," Lee said and energetic as always, leaped in between the trees and disappeared from our sight.

Neji sat down on the ground in front of the remaining of the fire the bandits had put up, resting his back against the tree behind him. I sat down on the other side of the abandoned fire, right in front of him. I felt a smile come across my lips as I remembered what had happened back at the hotel, before the explosion. Butterflies went wild inside my belly, making me bite my lip so I wouldn't cry out in joy. He had _almost _kissed me _again_.

… He touched my breasts…! _Oh, my God!!!_

The blush was back on my cheeks as I thought more about that heated moment of passion. What the hell had actually happened in his usually cold head? Something had obviously snapped when I broke the news, 'cause usually he never acted like that. Usually he didn't even smile at me.

Amaya came crawling over to Neji's side again. I could see him twitch in annoyance, but still he didn't move away. The invincible glare on his face was fully visible to me, 'cause I _knew _him. Which was more than Amaya could say. _Ha! _

She discretely leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder. I could feel my nails dig into the ground by my sides, annoyance written all over my face. Didn't she think that Neji was engaged? Would she just lean on an engaged man – boy? I actually had to remind myself that Neji was only fifteen, like me. Sometimes I forgot how young he was because of the seriousness of his personality… But still! It wasn't true, but she thought it was true, so why the hell was she still trying to woo him!?

"It's really a shame that you're getting married at such a young age, Neji-san. Most people would want to wait," Amaya muttered, her mouth muffled by the fabric of Neji's jacket.

_Oh, no…!_

No matter how annoyed Neji was, he couldn't help but to be caught off guard by that one. At first he just stared down at her in disbelief, probably wondering if she was insane or something.

"What are you talking about?" He asked confused, and tried to make a little distance between them, but failed.

"Don't act like you don't know. Tenten told me all about it," she said and looked innocently up at him.

I on the other side of the dead fire, stared at her with wide eyes and my mouth hanging slightly open. This could not be happening! Neji looked from Amaya to me, and back on Amaya again, not getting it completely.

"She told you…?"

"That you're engaged from birth and made the girl pregnant, so now you have to get married early to keep your pride," she said, and straightened up to look at him. "Was this supposed to be a secrete?" She asked, and stared at Neji, not understanding his confused reaction.

Oh, how I wished that I could just sink into the earth. Neji stared at me for a long time, his face changing from confused to annoyed and to amused. I tried to laugh it off, but it came out kind of half hearted, and I only made the situation even more embarrassing.

"Oh, really? So she told you that…?" Neji asked, his voice amused. By his side Amaya nodded her head, but he ignored it. "Did she tell you who my fiancée is too?" He asked, and glanced down at her. She shook her head no, and looked over at me with questioning eyes.

"No, she didn't," she said, and scooted closer to Neji.

I bit my lower lip nervously as Neji smirked at me.

"Of course she didn't, she's so shy," he said and rested his head against the tree behind him. I feared for what was to come. The evil look on his face was terrifying to me, guilty as I was.

"Who is it, then?" Asked Amaya, impatient.

"Well, it's Tenten, of course," Neji exclaimed, and grinned at me, killing a laugh.

I just stared at him. I had _never _expected him to say that! My heart just went crazy, and tried to throb its way out of my chest. The thought of being Hyuga Neji's fiancée was ridiculously appealing to me, and it made me blush so fiercely it almost felt like fire on my face.

"You… you're pregnant?" Amaya stuttered and stared at my stomach, blinking a lot.

I couldn't believe her! Did I really look pregnant!? I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't yell all sorts of insults at her.

"Yeah, and that's _my _fiancé you're leaning on there," I spat and gave her _the look_, clenching my teeth together.

Neji really had to struggle so he wouldn't laugh when I said that. He stared at me his mouth a little open because of his struggle, and an entertained grin on his beautiful face. Amaya quickly backed away from him, keeping a wary eye on me.

"Is this why you didn't want to drink any alcohol?" She asked, staring at me in complete awe. What was the big deal?

I rolled my eyes. Was this girl really this stupid, or was it an act to attract boys? I really had no idea. "Yes, Amaya," I said, trying to make her shut up.

Neji was discreetly covering his mouth with his elegant hand, and glanced at me now and then, absolutely not getting over what had just happened.

Embarrassed as hell I covered my face with my hands and rubbed my temples. Would he ever allow me to forget this? I didn't know, something like this had never happened with us before.

"Friends! I have brought you _branches! _" Lee exclaimed and threw a huge pile go wood on the coal between me and Neji.

"That's great, Lee." Neji said, his voice cutely disturbed by his almost suppressed laughter. "Tenten, come with me, I need to talk to you," He said and stood up form the ground, still grinning.

"I'd rather not," I mumbled, keeping my gaze towards the ground.

"'Comon," he said and grabbed my hand and dragged me away from the camp. Glancing back, I saw Lee look after us with confusion in his big eyes. A laughing Neji didn't make much sense to anyone.

* * *

"Okay, what the hell..?! _Engaged, _Tenten?" He asked, his face still amused. I couldn't believe how he could find this so funny. He never laughed, what was wrong with him!?

He stopped and turned me around so that we were facing each other. I bit my teeth together and made a few grimaces. What the hell would I say? How could I explain this without telling him that I freakin' loved him?! Ah, who cared anyway? He probably knew everything from what had happened before the explosion. Why couldn't I just learn how to control myself? And why did he have to lead me on like that? Was he just playing me?

"Well, you know…" I started, without anything sensible to say. He looked at me, a smirk still positioned in his face. He was _so_ hot.

"Why did you tell her I was engaged?" He asked again, and put his hands on his hips, urging me to answer.

"Well, you know I actually saved you back there!"

"Yeah, by making her think we're engaged," he said and chuckled. I had to grin back at him. He was so beautiful with that smile on his face. I wanted to hug him and be with him forever.

"Pff, you were the one who made her think _we're_ engaged! _And_ you said that I was pregnant! Do I look pregnant to you?" I asked, and faked an angry tone.

"No," he said and glanced down at my abdomen for a second and then back at my face. "No, you look perfectly fine to me."

I blushed. My cheeks turned even redder, and I could feel my hands getting all sweaty. He really did try to kill me. I started mumbling something that didn't make any sense, and averted my eyes form him.

"Why did you lie to her, Tenten?" he asked, his voice calmer now. Meeting his eyes again I found the perfect smile still there to comfort me.

"She was like… Really into you, and kept on nagging about you, and she was really annoying, you know! So I just thought that I'd say that you had a girlfriend, so she'd shut up, and then one lie went to the other and I lost control! You _know _I suck at lying!" I ranted and clenched my fists. I had never, _ever, _been this embarrassed before in my whole life.

He laughed then. Really laughed. His shoulders shook, and his mouth was wide open, and he _laughed. _I felt like some kind of superhero. I had made the stoic, cold, ice cube, _Neji Hyuga laugh_. This must be some kind of world record, I thought to myself as I admired him.

"Ahh," he sighed as he finally took a break to breath. He had to rub his eyes a little. This must be some kind of a new experience for him. Mr. Serious had laughed!

"You're so cute," he muttered as he wiped away a tear that had rested in the crock of his eye while he laughed.

I'm cute? Was this for real, or was it a dream? I folded my hands behind my back and secretly pinched myself to check if I was awake.

"So what? You were jealous?" he asked, and flashed me a cocky smirk.

What was I going to say now? He knew what I felt, he would know if I tried to lie, and he would find out the truth eventually anyway. I felt completely defeated. Still it was worth a shot.

"No," I said stubbornly. He raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't!" They went even higher. "Okay, maybe a little!" Even higher…! "Neji, stop that!"

"Admit it," he said and came closer to me. I backed away a few steps, for the first time in my life feeling the need to keep just a little distance between us. "Admit that you were jealous." _Damned smirk._

"Ah, please! Since when did you become such a…" I trailed off. Why, oh, why did he have to give me that look? That extremely sexy look that just had me drooling. He really did _shine_ of sex appeal. "…_ Hottie…" _

"What was that?"

"Alright, _fine!_ I was jealous! Happy now?" Giving in was the most reasonable solution to this extremely awkward situation.

He chuckled again, looking at me with a playful look in his eyes. "You really mess up everything these days, don't you?"

"That's to put it mildly," I muttered and bowed my head. Things just got better and better…! _Not._

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**A/N: **I just find the end of this chapter so freakin' cute :DD I don't know what you all think, though, so let me know!! ;D (That means _please_ give me a review... or two?)


	10. Chapter 10 A Task

**A/N:** Really boring chapter ahead. Can't be all funny and exciting all the time, you know, but I made sure to put in some cuteness in it. I'm sorry it too me this long to get it out here, but it my wonderful imagination was put on hold for a few days - really freaking me out!

Disclaimer: Don't own any Naruto-stuff at all.

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Chapter 10. A Task

It seemed like the day would never end. Neji had eventually gotten over the whole "engagement-lie" and asked me to take the first watch. I would probably not get much sleep anyway, so I agreed quite quickly. He smirked and left me by the fire. I watched the others roll out their sleeping bags and crawl into them. The horrified and very unpleased look on Amaya's face was pretty entertaining to me.

"How can you sleep in these?" She asked, and hesitated to pull up the zipper of my sleeping bag (she didn't have one of her own, so I lent her mine).

"You lay down, close your eyes and shut up," Neji mumbled, his back turned to her.

From where I sat I could see both Lee and Amaya flinch at his harsh tone. Lee flashed the Heiress an apologetic smile before he pulled up his zipper and lied down to get some sleep.

"Wake me up in some hours, Tenten," Neji said, without turning towards me.

"Sure," I said, leaning back against the tree he had leant on just some hours ago, during the most embarrassing minutes of my life.

Trying my very best to forget about everything that was not good in my life, my mind drifted off to the almost-make out session I had shared with Neji. It felt like days ago, but still I remembered every second of it. I had never felt like that before. I felt like he owned me. He could have done whatever he wanted with me, and I wouldn't have minded because it was he doing it. Who would have guessed that I could feel so… ready, just because he was close to me?

"Tenteeen…!" I heard Amaya whine some meters away. I turned towards her, and found her lying on her side, face turned towards me. She looked miserable.

"What's wrong?" I asked, and tried to sound kind.

"Everything. I feel so scared…!"

She really did look scared. I almost felt sorry for her. To me, this was no biggie, but she wasn't used to this – bad guys and everything. She was used to walls of gold and bed sheets of silk, not trees and sleeping bags… and scary monotonous guys like Neji.

"Don't worry, Amaya. You are perfectly safe," I said calmly, and smiled at her.

"They might throw another one of those smoke balls," she mumbled, her mouth hidden by the blue sleeping bag.

"They won't," I began and turned more towards her. I felt pretty much like a mother speaking to a scared child. "Lee and I tied them up and left them outside the woods, the villagers have probably found them by now."

"The villagers from my neighboor village?"

"Yeah."

"What if… -"

"Amaya," I cut her off. "Just sleep. You can't be more safe than you are now."

She didn't answer, just bowed her head and snuggled deeper into my sleeping bag. I heard her sigh tiredly, before her breathing came more evenly. Poor thing.

I had trouble keeping my eyelids up, that's when I decided it was time to wake Neji. I rose from the ground, my legs shaking slightly. I yawned tiredly and wiped away some tears that welled up in my eyes. Moving towards the sleeping beauty, I stopped to admire his peaceful face. So pale and clean. His lips were slightly parted and so inviting. I wanted to lie down besides him and kiss them, but I didn't have that sort of courage.

"Hey, Neji?" I whispered, so I wouldn't wake the others, especially not Amaya. "Neji, wake up," I tried again and bent down a little. He didn't even stir. I frowned. He was usually a very light sleeper. A leaf falling to the ground could wake him up completely alarmed.

"Neji?" Nothing. "Aw, for crying out loud…!" I bent down on all four and crawled over to his sleeping form. "Neji," I hissed and reached out to shake his shoulders.

"Hey," he mumbled, just half a second before I would have touched his shoulder. Darn it. "Tired?" He asked and flashed me a very weak smirk.

"Yeah," I breathed and smiled at him. I stood up as he unzipped his sleeping bag, and rose to his feet. My eyes followed him as he straightened up fully, his head hovering over mine. He was tall.

He rubbed the sleep out of his pale eyes and walked past me without touching me, or looking at me or saying anything at all. I sighed disappointed, but remained silent. I sat down on his open sleeping bag, kicked off my shoes and stuck my feet into it. Neji's warmth was still there, and it felt wonderful against my skin.

Turning my head I found Neji positioned exactly where I had been sitting. He was looking at me with a calm, unreadable look on his face. The glow from the fire was once again making him look like a god. He made my heart skip a beat and made me choke on the air I breathed, but I tried to hide it.

"Good night," I said, not sure if he would answer. He remained silent. Once again disappointed. I lay down and pulled up the zipper, rolling over to my left side so I could look directly at Neji if I wanted to – at the moment my eyes were closed. My heart was comforted by the fresh scent of Neji, still lingering on the fabric if his sleeping bag. His warmth and his smell surrounded me. Oh, the paradise.

"Sleep tight."

My eyes shot open at the sound of his beautiful monotonous voice. My lips formed into a grin and I finally felt like I could close my eyes and actually fall asleep, 'cause he was there, and he wouldn't let anyone harm me while I was sleeping.

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"Good morning, everyone!"

I sat up quite startled by Lee's ear deafening wakeup call and Amaya's surprised scream, and groaned when I realized that it was just he, and not an alien attack. The boy sure knew how to use his voice to the maximum.

"Come on, Lee, give us a heart attack," I muttered as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with my hands. I didn't need a mirror to know that my hair needed to be redone; my buns were quite messy after the night. I pulled out the hair ties and skillfully rolled my hair up in my regular buns again.

"We should get moving right away," Neji said from my right. I instinctively turned to look at him; he was turned towards me as well. "We can get something to eat back in the village."

"Should we go right up to the Village in the Mountain, or their nameless neighbors?" Lee asked as he poured some water on the black coal the fire had left, to be sure there wasn't any sparks left to start a fire when we left.

Neji eyed Amaya for a second; she was sitting in my sleeping bag, looking at one to the other confused. She probably didn't want to walk all the way up to her village.

"Are we sure that our mission is completed?" I asked, as sudden as the thought hit me. I looked at Neji, waiting for his answer.

"You're right. We can't be sure that we've captured all the bandits. The best thing will be to return to the hotel, and wait for further instructs from the Village Leader," Neji said, and got to his feet. He rolled the sleeping bag up and tossed it to Lee, who it belonged to.

I did the same with Neji's sleeping bag, only I didn't toss it to its owner, I handed it to him. He only smirked as I thanked him for lending it to me, making the butterflies in my stomach go crazy.

"Did you have a good night?" He asked, as I was about to turn to back my stuff together. I quickly turned around again to look at him. He gave me a smug look that made me feel a little uneasy.

"Yeah," I answered, suspiciously. "Why?"

"Nothing," he said, and walked past me so he could shove his sleeping bag down in his backpack again.

Why was it always him that ended our conversations? Why couldn't I be the cold and mysterious one for once? Oh, yeah! Because I wasn't cold and mysterious…!

I had to join Amaya way behind Neji and Lee as we walked towards the village again. She was struggling with the pace, and I had to respect that.

"So how come you are out on a mission while being pregnant?" She asked, looking at my belly as we walked.

I tried to ignore her – I really did. The sky was all clear and stuff. I had counted five birds on the sky. The wind blew towards south. The ground was a little bumpy, but I managed. Amaya stumbled a little though.

"Are you trying to make your body do an spontaneous abortion or something?"

"No, I just had to," I said, and rolled my eyes. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't pregnant, but couldn't stand the thought of her finding out the truth. Not that I thought she'd have the brain to realize it, but still I wanted to be on the safe side.

"I just don't get it. Why didn't you just use protection?" She asked and kind of leaned forward so she could catch a glimpse of my face. I tried to hide my glare, but failed.

"Amaya, I'm really not comfortable discussing my… eh, my…" I couldn't bring myself to say it.

"Sex-life?"

"Yeah… I don't want to discuss that with you. It's kind of private," I said, avoiding her eyes. The word "protection" had made all sorts of naughty images pop up in my head. Images involving my extremely perfect teammate and me. I knew that it was very wrong of me to have fantasies about Neji, but I had lost control over my mind long ago.

"Do you love each other?" her voice was thinner now, nervous for the answer.

My eyebrows went higher. What would be my wonderful answer on this? I could say yes and make her shut up forever, or I could save myself for the embarrassment that was bound to come and just say the truth. Tough choice.

"Well, it's kind of complicated…" I started, trying my best to gain some more time. What would I answer? Yes or no? "I don't think he loves me…" I finally mumbled, feeling my nerves relaxing with the truth finally spoken… kind of.

"Why not?" She asked, interest suddenly taking part in her feminine voice.

"Seriously, this is non of your business," I said. She was really annoying. A serious case of spoiled brat.

"But, Tenten!" She whined, and pouted a huge pout.

"No, go away," I said, and stepped a to the left. She was getting a little too close for my liking.

"But I want to know!"

"I don't want to tell you anything!"

"Please!"

"Neji! Lee! WAIT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. They stopped immediately and looked over their shoulders. I could see that Neji was unhappy for having to stop, and that Lee was worried for our safety.

"WHAT'S WRONG, TENTEN?" Lee yelled back with the same volume.

"Don't leave me alone with her," I muttered quietly as I pushed in between them. Amaya ended up at Lee's right side, and kept silent there.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before I started worrying for Neji. He was really silent, and he had the "thinking-look" on his face. Something was wrong.

"What are you thinking about, Neji?" I asked in a whisper, so Amaya wouldn't hear it, but Lee could. I saw him glance down at me from the corner of his eye for a split second before answering.

"Why did those bandits kidnap the Heiress, if it is her village they're after?" His voice was silent, and wondering. I glanced over at the blonde; she hadn't heard anything, luckily. I was sure that she would freak out if she heard any of this. "I think the bandits are after her."

It made sense. If they only wanted to steal from and terrorize the village, they wouldn't have bothered to track her down and kidnap her.

"But why would they want her?" Whispered Lee, so quiet that I had to concentrate to hear it.

"Maybe there's something she's not telling us?" I guessed, looking at Neji for any response.

"Could be," he mumbled. "Or maybe they want to blackmail the Village Leader in some way."

"Nevertheless, we're going to have to check in on a different hotel this time," I said, and glanced over at Amaya again; she still was oblivious.

"Or we could camp out here, they wouldn't expect that," Lee suggested, looking from me to Neji.

"True," Neji mumbled and shot Amaya one wary look, before he shifted his eyes back to Lee and me again.

"But seriously, I don't think I can stand all her whining one more night," I hissed through my teeth, and crossed my arms over my chest. "She's so annoying."

"Tenten, you have to view this as a task," Lee began, lifting his fist up in front of me as we walked side by side. "In the end it will make you stronger!"

"What'll make her stronger?" Amaya asked from Lee's right, bending forwards so she could see us better.

"The power of youth!" Lee quickly covered, and put a hand on her shoulder. "You see, Tenten is going through a lot of changes in this period of her life and…" Lee shot us one quick glance, telling us that we had to find out what to do while he occupied Amaya.

"I think it would be best if we just stayed here in the woods," Neji said in a whisper, looking straight into my eyes. I gulped, feeling tiny under the stare of his beautiful eyes, but nodded my head anyway. Something about him made me forget about the coming torture I was giving in to. "We should send Lee to inform the people in the hotel we stayed in, just in case the Village Leader would want to contact us," he added glancing over at the green clad by my side.

"We should tell her, then," I muttered.

"Yeah, go on."

"No, you tell her."

"Tenten…"

I sighed heavily, but gave in. "Amaya, we're going to have to stay out here for at least another night before you can go home."

"No!" She screamed horrified, and pushed Lee to the side. All of us stopped, ready for the argument that was bound to come. "You promised that we'd go back to the village!" She screamed with her fists held up over her chest.

"No one gave any promises…" Lee began.

"You said –"

"We all know what we said, but the current situation requires some changes in the plan," Neji said boring his cold eyes into her innocent ones, making her almost cringe. I tried to hide my own cringing, but I think he noticed it anyway.

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Amya's screaming was echoing between the trees in the wood as Neji and I started making a fire. The sun was going down, and the cold night was slowly sneaking in. She was not happy at all. She sat curled up by a tree, looking too much like a lost child.

"I want to go home!" She whined, and kind of rocked back and forth.

"Amaya, shut up," Neji said, completely forgetting to be polite towards our client. I didn't care much, though. He could throw her off a cliff for all I cared at the moment.

"Now!" She yelled, ignoring the scary tone Neji had given her. I couldn't imagine how frustrated she must have been to ignore a scary Neji, her being all fragile and innocent and stuff.

I watched my team leader sigh heavily, as he struggled to keep his temper. His face was pulled into a frustrated frown; even though he easily made the wood we had collected burn by slamming together a pair of rocks.

"Do you think we can knock her out?" I suggested jokingly, and smirked a little at the thought. He chuckled under his breath, but didn't give me any real answer. We settled down in front of the fire and tried to ignore Amaya's complaining while we waited for Lee to return. This would be a darn long night.

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**A/N: **Damn.... I get bored just by thinking about this chapter... It might be because I've read over it so many times now. Tell me what you think : D Please...!!


	11. Chapter 11 Be Brave

**A/N: **This chapter might be the shortest one yet, but it seemed like a good place to stop. I've made sure to put some cuteness in this chapter as well, and I'd be so happy if you'd write me a review : D

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to the Naruto series. Which should have been quite obvious, 'cause if I did, I wouldn't be here, writing fan fiction about it. _

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**Chapter 11. Be Brave**

We managed to make Amaya sleep, but not without using force. Neji and I crashed down on the ground far away from where Amaya lay sleeping and sighed in union. She was really a handful. The fire was dancing in front of us, granting us comfortable warmth. I crossed my legs and leaned a little forward, trying to absorb as much of the warmth as possible.

"Lee will probably be back soon," Neji muttered. Was he trying to small talk? Wow, that's rare.

"Yeah," I muttered, and peeked up at him from the corner of my eye. He was leaning back on his hands, legs crossed as well. He looked extremely tired. Amaya had taken a toll on him. How cute.

"Do you think she's asleep?" He asked with a low voice, almost as if he was afraid she would wake up again. I had to giggle. "What?" He asked, defensively.

"Nothing. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's sleeping," I said and covered my mouth with my hand, trying to stop the laughter.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing, I'm just tired," I said, and grinned at him. He didn't look like he believed me. His shoulders were all tense, and his mouth was pulled into a thin line. "Neji, relax." I said and leaned back on my hands. "It's just you and me."

The look on his face made me regret what I had said immediately. He just stared at me, like he did when I said stupid stuff. He had gotten the wrong idea… or actually he had gotten the right idea, but he wasn't supposed to get that idea! I tried to cover it by hiding the worry I was feeling. I had to say something – change the subject.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, completely out of the blue. He looked a little puzzled, but answered nevertheless.

"You."

My breath caught in my throat. "What?" I asked, a little louder than I had intended.

"Don't wake her!" Neji hissed and smacked one of his hands over my mouth. _Oops…_

"Sorry," I whispered and pushed his hand away from my face. "You're thinking about me?"

He smirked. My heart melted. "Yeah, wondering what you were laughing for."

"Pff, get over it," I said and rolled my eyes mockingly. "You're such a drama queen."

There was a long pause. Neji just stared at me, making me feel quite vulnerable, but he would never know. The staring part I could live with, but the expression on his face was too much. How could he drain his eyes for emotions like that? I tried to return his staring, but the knowledge of him reading me like an open book, with huge letters, was making it hard to keep my cool.

"What are _you_ thinking about?" His voice was so silent, not a whisper, just silent. I loved hearing it like that. He sounded so peaceful. _I_ felt peaceful when he talked like that.

"What do you think?" I asked him. I meant for it to sound teasingly, but it just didn't. My voice was like his, just not as melodic and perfect. He didn't answer right away, but then again he rarely did. I noticed his eyes moving a little, looking my face up and down.

"I know what you're thinking about," he muttered, his eyes landing on mine. I had to swallow so my voice wouldn't end up sounding too high pitched.

"Why did you ask then?"

A halfhearted chuckle escaped his mouth, and he let go of my gaze. He stared into the fire instead. I discretely scooted a little closer to him, making sure not to touch his hand, and making it obvious what I was doing.

"Because I want to hear you say it."

My heart stung a little, but in a good way… I think. I leaned a little forward, trying to claim his gaze, but he didn't move. He didn't even blink – almost. What would I say? It was almost as if he wanted me to admit my feelings. I couldn't do that. It would be like committing a suicide! Still, he already knew. He'd probably known for a long time.

Wait… How could I know for sure that what he thought he knew was the truth? What if he'd got it all wrong? Still, what were the chances for that to ever happen? I sighed and let my head drop slightly. I knew I had regained his attention.

"What if I'm not brave enough to say it?" I asked him, my voice coming out unexpectedly bitter.

"Then I'll have to wait until you _have_ become brave enough," he said silently.

"I might never become that brave, Neji."

I closed my eyes as I felt his hand land lightly on mine. I didn't look at him, I didn't dare. I wasn't even sure if we were talking about the same thing anymore. Why couldn't I just fall in love with a regular person? Why did it have to be Neji? What was worse than falling in love with perfection?

"Tenten…" He started and leaned a little closer to me. I refused to turn towards him. Keeping my eyes shut was the wisest thing to do. It was safer. "You can do anything," He said. I could feel how he was trying to make me look at him, but I wouldn't. "You've proved that so many times."

I couldn't fight a smile from entering my face. What was going on with him lately? Was he really complementing me?

"Feeling any braver?" He asked. From the corner of my eye I could see him smiling softly, encouragingly. His hand was still on top of mine. "Lee's going to be back soon."

I turned my head towards him, and directed my eyes towards his, just a few inches taller than me, now that he was leaning.

"I'm thinking about you," I whispered, not sure what was going to come next. His face didn't change at all. I took a deep breath, to calm my tense body.

"Why?" He asked after a long pause.

"Because I…" How was I going to make myself say it? I'd been denying it for so long. I had promised myself that he'd never find out, but things seemed different now. The fear of him pushing me away had faded, and left me with a pleasant feeling of safety. "I …"

"It's alright," he whispered, like he was trying to tell me that he wouldn't hurt me, he wouldn't yell at me.

"I love you."

"What took you so long?"

For a short second I was completely shocked at his reply, until Lee came crashing down on the other side of the fire, and I understood that Neji only tried to make the situation less romantic so Lee wouldn't know what had been going on. I pushed myself farther away form him, so Lee wouldn't get suspicious.

"Someone's following me," Lee said silently, looking at us from across the fire, a serious look on his face.

Both me and Neji quickly got to our feet. I was pretty sure he'd forgotten all about what had happened just a minute ago, but my heart was still pounding painfully against my chest.

"How many?" Neji asked and activated his byakugan immediately, searching the area.

"Three, or four," Lee said, and looked around as well.

I still hadn't regained control over my pulse, and had to support myself against a tree. Swallowing to steady my voice I finally felt like I could talk again.

"What do we do with Amaya?"

Lee looked at me surprised at the struggling tone in my voice. I averted my eyes from his. I was being pathetic again. _Get a grip, Tenten!_

"You should get her away from here," Neji said, his normal self taking control again. "Take her on your back, and get her as far into this wood as possible. Lee and I will take down who ever these people are, and find you when it's over."

"Okay," I said silently and walked over to Amaya's sleeping form. "Prepare yourself," I muttered before I reached out to shake her shoulder. "Amaya, you've got to wake up," I said while shaking her slightly. She stirred a little before opening her eyes. "We've gotta get moving," I said and straightened up my back.

"But it's still dark?" Her voice was a little hoarse, probably from all the screaming. Blinking slightly she sat up fully and took in her surroundings. "You're back…?" She said, looking at Lee. "Does that mean that I can go home now?" She asked, her face suddenly going all merry.

"No. You and I are going to have to move farther into the woods, to keep you safe," I said, and prepared myself for what was to come.

"N –"

I managed to smack my hand over her mouth before the loud protest erupted. "Keep quiet, _please_," I begged, and let go of her head.

She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, a sign that she had surrendered.

"Tenten," Neji called form behind me. I turned my head towards him still on my knees. "You should go east. _Now._" I nodded my head yes, signalling for him that I had understood, and turned around so Amaya could climb onto my back. She seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation and accepted it without any farther discussion. _Thank God. _

I gave Neji one last look before I leaped up in the trees. I knew Amaya was quite frightened, but she kept her mouth shut as I jumped from branch to branch with her on my back.

"What will happen to Neji-kun and that other one?" She asked in a whisper, as I landed on the ground and started running in stead.

"They're going to knock some serious sense into those bandit's heads," I answered, keeping my voice low.

"You're going very fast. Are you sure you can see where we're going?" She asked, and clenched her arms even tighter around my shoulders as I did a sharp turn around a big tree.

"Don't worry. I'm used to running even faster than this," I assured her and picked up my pace as much as I could while carrying her. She kept silent for the rest of the run. All I could hear was her breathing in my ear. She was doing a good job.

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**A/N: **If I don't get 10 reviews now, I'll stop updating forever.

Yeah, like that would ever happen... x')


	12. Chapter 12 Followed

**A/N: ** No, dear readers, that was a joke. I will never stop updating this story :D Didn't you notice how I wrote "as if that would ever happen" at the very bottom of the page? Anyway, here's next chapter, enjoy! (reviews are very welcome)

_Disclamier: I don't own any of the characthers from the Naruto series. _

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**Chapter 12. Followed**

I was running faster, and Amaya's grip around my shoulders tightened. The trees stood closer to each other now, and there wasn't easy to move between them, but I could manage. My shoulder was scratched by a thin branch I hadn't seen, but I ignored it, Amaya didn't though.

"Tenten – "

"I know, I'm fine," I cut her off. The less sound she made the better.

"What do they want?" She whispered frightened. I knew she was talking about those who followed us. Truth is I had no idea.

"I don't know, but we shouldn't underestimate them," I said in a whisper. "We're going up now," I informed before I leaped up towards the tree tops, intending to jump from branch to branch again, but I never got that high. Someone grabbed my leg and slammed me full force down on the ground again. I landed with my back on Amaya, who screamed loudly into my ear. I got up on my knees and covered her wide-open mouth with my hand, looking around for any sign of the intruder.

Nothing.

A few leaves were falling towards the ground. The wind blew through the treetops, making little to almost no sound. My heart pounded against my chest, as I slowly turned around a little, dropping my hand from Amaya's mouth.

"Who is it?" She whimpered from my right side, sitting up more properly. I noticed from the corner of my eye how her arms were trembling.

"I don't know. Stay down," I told her and stood up fully myself. I grabbed a kunai from my holster, and closed my eyes. I had to sense him. I had to find him without my eyes. Towards east, where we was headed, there was nothing, but towards what I guessed was north I heard something. Breathing?

"Tenten?"

"Quiet!" I hissed and tightened my grip around my kunai. Yeah, that must be breathing. He was on the ground. I opened my eyes and turned towards east, but kept my gaze towards north. I had found him; he was crouched down behind a thick bush. Did he really think that I didn't see him there?

Then it hit me.

Amaya screamed as the guy came crashing down from above me. I reacted quickly enough to block his kick and punch him in the face. He back flipped away from me, landing several meters away. I stepped in front of Amaya, who was completely frozen with fear.

"Who are you?" I asked, watching him rub his cheekbone.

"Nice punch there," he mumbled and finally raised his head. I recognized him as the black haired ninja that got away from the last fight. "I almost got you there, though," he said and grinned arrogantly at me.

"You're going to need more than a shadow clone to fool me," I spat and leaped up in the air, throwing several kunai's towards him. He moved quickly away, but I think I managed to land a few hits, which was way better than non.

"You're good with those weapons, aren't you?" He asked from behind me. I spun around with surprise. How did he get behind me so fast? I didn't even see him move around me!

Amaya was now seated between us. I jumped elegantly over her head and got ready to fight him down.

"Listen I'm not really a part of that gang you and your team is recruited to protect her from, so you don't have to fight me," he said, a slight chuckle interrupting his voice.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" I asked, and threw four shuriken towards him, pinning him against the thick tree behind him. I smirked at the annoyed look that entered his face as he noticed how far the shuriken had sunk into the tree. He pulled a little at his black clothing before he suddenly vanished, and my weapons fell to the ground. I stared at them, completely dumbfounded in some seconds, before Amaya's scream brought me back to reality.

"Tenten!" She screamed, and crawled over to the nearest tree for support. The black haired man appeared besides her, kunai in hand. I leaped at him, and together we crashed violently to the ground, but before I managed to put my own kunai against his throat, he was gone again, leaving me with a slight breeze.

"Is he a ghost?" Amaya asked, from where she sat by the tree. She had pulled her knees up under her chin and put her hands on her head, pulling her blonde locks of hair. I saw the tears in her cheeks.

"No," I said quickly, and stood up. "I think it is some kind of transformation –"

"Wrong!" He exclaimed behind me. I spun around in time to see him claps his hands together while grinning cockily at me. "That's what everybody thinks though."

"What do you want?" I demanded, and tried to sound dominative and strong.

"How charming. I can see through you act, you know," he said and started walking towards me. My hand dived into my weapon holster, and grabbed a small scroll. "I can see that you're not as tough as you'd like to be, or maybe you are tough, but just not strong enough?"

I mentally told myself not to listen to him. He was only trying to psyche me out. I took some steps back and bit my thumb so it began bleeding. I started to unroll the little scroll in my hand, slowly and unnoticeable I rolled it around so the paper hung loosely from it, constantly gaining length.

"Why do you want her?" I asked, motioning to Amaya with my head.

"Why would I tell you?" he asked and kept on walking towards me. The cocky look on his face was sickening me. I couldn't waste anymore time. It took only a second to pull the scroll up above my head, and rub my blood on it before all kinds of weapons came flying towards him. I saw how he tried to escape, but failed. The weapons came from everywhere. He was trapped.

The thousands of impacts made the dust from the ground fly up in the air, blocking view. When it finally settled back on the ground, I had expected to see him lying in the dirt, covered in weapons, but he had vanished again!

"It's a talent I'm granted from my family," he said from behind me. I spun around again, clenching my jaws together in annoyance. This was getting ridiculous. "You know, bloodline limit and all that. I'm a fast runner," he said and blinked at me, like he thought that this was good time to flirt.

What came next was I leaping at him and a series of kicks and hits coming from both of us. He was a quick fighter too. His moves were almost too quick for me to see, before they came. My shoulder, jaw and hip was throbbing and burning from damage, but I had to ignore it. I was sure I had managed to land a few good hits on him as well, which strengthened my ego a lot. With a deep grunt he managed to grab my shoulders and throw me over his head, sending me back first into a tree. The back of my head was thrown violently back into the tree, making my brain feel all twisted.

Coming back to my senses, I pushed myself off of the ground. My vision was slightly blurred, but I stumbled forward and regained my eye-function in time to see the ninja throw Amaya over his shoulder, send me a cocky smirk, and run off.

Oh crap!

I dashed after them full speed. He did obviously not run as fast as he could, cause I managed to keep up with him, but he always made sure to be ahead of me. I was starting to worry about him leading me into a trap, but forced myself to focus on saving Amaya.

She was screaming, using her voice to the absolute maximum. Her hands were stretched out towards me, and tears flowing from her eyes. I prayed that my legs would just move faster. This guy was just teasing me! Before I knew it he would storm off and Amaya would be finished and it would all be my fault, for not being strong enough to protect her.

I had to do something. Now!

I pulled out the last scroll I had, and summoned only one weapon from it, a huge sword. I jumped up between the trees and threw the sword towards the ground, making sure it would hit the dirt right in front of the bastards nose. Thanks to my perfect aim, it worked, and he crashed right into it falling to the ground as the sharp metal vanished in smoke.

I dumped down in front of them. The man didn't move at first, but when Amaya began to crawl away form him, his hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist. She screamed again, and began hitting his hand violently.

"Let go of her!" I yelled and threw a kunai, aiming for his wrist. He threw his hand back, but not fast enough to make me miss entirely. "Run, Amaya!" I yelled again, and ran towards them ready to fight. Amaya got to her feet and stumbled a little before she did as she was told and disappeared between the trees. He tried to follow her but I jumped up in the air and kicked his jaw so hard that I was sure I could hear something snap.

"You are getting annoying, girl," he growled and appeared behind me. I felt his hands take a firm grip around my shoulders and then he threw me full force up and over his head, and sent me flying into the woods. I crashed into a tree, the impact sent me into another tree, and then I hit the ground rolling a few meters before it finally stopped. I could taste the dirt from the ground in my mouth, mixed with some of my own blood. My head was spinning, and felt like it was going to explode. My arms and legs were burning with pain. I rolled over on my back and groaned loudly.

"Maybe you should just give up now, while we're still having fun?" he suggested jokingly as he walked over to me. I sat up, using my arms for support. "Oh, not such a pretty sight anymore," he said and chuckled. I bit my lip and tried to stand up, but my knees gave in beneath me, and I fell down with a whimper.

I reached into my weapon holster, but it was empty. My heart skipped a beat as he stopped in front of me and stared at me with an evil smirk on his face. He was annoyingly handsome. The urge to jump at him and cut his head off was unbearable, especially since I didn't have any weapons or scrolls left. What was I going to do? I was no good in close combat! If I could just get back to where the fight started, then I could use all the weapons that lied on the ground there.

"What's wrong?" he suddenly sat on top of me pinning me down against the ground. I tried to kick him from behind with my knee, but I couldn't reach him. I was trapped. "You suddenly don't look so tough anymore," he grinned down at me, looking humored. "I'll end it for you," he said and wrapped his arms around my throat. At first I didn't realize what he was doing, but when he started to slowly close his hands around my throat I realized that he was trying to strangle me. My hands shot instinctively shot up and gripped around his arms trying to make him let go.

I felt dizzy. I couldn't breath. All I could see was his disgusting smirk. I had to make him let go! Needed a kunai, or something sharp. Anything! My head felt heavy, almost like it was being swallowed by the earth beneath me. Panic was floating in on my, and I struggled to keep it down.

With a panic-strengthened force a managed to kick my knee hard enough into his back, so he was pushed forward and for just a second he loosened his grip around my throat. I slammed my fist into his jaw, so hard that he fell off me, and I could make my escape. I rolled backwards and jumped up into a standing position, one hand over my hurting throat. It felt like he had crushed every bone and muscled in my neck, and breathing didn't come painless either.

I watched him warily as he got to his feet. He pushed some black locks out of his face, and corrected his clothing a little before meeting my gaze again.

"You're gonna die."  


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**A/N: **So this was my poor attempt on making a cliffhanger... Tell me what you think, will you? Please? :3


	13. Chapter 13 You Were Right

**A/N: **It's in the middle of the freakin' night, but I just couldn't bring myself to stop writing! So here you have it: the 13th chapter of my story! Go ahead and review, 'cause I really love my reviewers, and all of you others too who add this story to your favorites and your story alert system and all that :D

_Disclaimer: me don't own naruto-stuff. _

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**Chapter 13. You were right **

I blocked blow after blow. Some of his attacks hit me, some didn't. He was moving so fast that he might as well be the very air that surrounded me. I didn't have time to figure out where he was before he leaped at me. I felt like we had been going on like this for ever, and it was taking it's toll on me.

Neji was right; I was completely helpless without my weapons.

The taste of warm blood filled my mouth. My head felt heavy and dizzy. My legs were begging me to give in, and my arms and abdomen felt numb. Still I refused to give up. I stood tall and tried my very best to fight back, even though my vision was failing me as well.

I held my breath as silence filled the wood. I looked around and prepared for his next attack, but it didn't come. My heart beat faster and faster as I waited for him to strike.

Was I going to die?

"I forgot to tell you," I heard his voice say. I couldn't tell where he was. Somewhere above me. I shrieked in shock as his hand shot out from behind me and grabbed me by my hair. He pulled me backwards, making me stumble right into his chest.

"I rarely play fair," he chuckled into my ear and pulled harder at my hair making me whimper slightly. "Common, I love hearing you voice."

I tried to slam my elbow into his guts full force, but I didn't have that force anymore. Instead, he grabbed my arm and pulled backwards. I screamed as something snapped and he dislocated it from my shoulder.

"That's better!" he laughed into my ear. "Scream like you mean it!"

He drew me full force into the air. I crashed into the ground violently and rolled a little until I crashed head first into a tree. I rolled over on my stomach and mentally remind myself that I could not allow myself to give up, even though all I wanted was for this fight to end.

I put my hands on the ground, and used the one arm that still were connected to my shoulder to push myself up. My left arm was useless, and hurt like hell too. I grabbed it with my right hand, and tried to ignore the overwhelming pain as I looked around for my opponent with watery eyes.

"Ready to give up now?" he cowed from somewhere above me. I felt my stomach twist, and I had to use force to keep the vomit down. I heard him laugh at me as I struggled to sit up on my knees. My back ached from the fight, but then again, so did my entire body.

There was a long silent pause. I heard something move quickly towards us, and then the sound of a fist crashing full force into a face, followed by the black haired man's body falling to the ground right in front of me. He struggled to sit up, and groaned loudly in pain, as he put his hand over his face to cover the damage. I could see all the blood that was streaming from his nose, though.

I bit my lower lip as Neji dumped down on the other side of the ninja.

"I guess play time is over," the guy said, flashing me a disgusting smirk before he stormed off like a flash. Neji tried to reach out to grab his arm, but weren't even close to touching him. He stumbled a little before he regained his balance. He stared confused after him, with his byakugan activated.

"He's fast…" he mumbled silently, his body slowly calming down. He was a little dirty and a little ruffled from fighting, but something told me that Neji was in a far better state tan I was. He turned towards me and looked me up and down. I felt a little like I was dying under his judging stare, but somehow I survived.

"Your shoulder," he muttered and deactivated his Hyuga-superpower.

I glanced down at the arm I was holding on to. I knew what he was going to do. He was going to ask me to give him my hand, and then he was going to pull. _Hard._ I would scream. A sickening snap would be heard, and then my arm would be on its place again. As tempting as it sounds…

"Give me your hand," he ordered, just as I had predicted. He stepped closer to me. I looked up at him from where I sat on the ground. I must've looked pathetic.

"Can you please wait until I've passed out? I think I'm losing reality pretty soon," I tried. My voice sounded pierced and shaky, but I managed to talk anyway, which was kind of a victory. The sight of his eyebrow moving higher made his answer pretty clear. I sighed heavily, and put my hand in his.

Usually I loved the feeling of his hand on me, but knowing what was to come this time, I didn't feel half as pleased. He positioned his other hand by my elbow, and looked me directly into my eyes.

_One, two, trhee… _

I screamed loud as he pulled at my arm with all the strength he could. He pulled so hard that my butt was lifted from the ground a few seconds.

_Snap!_

He let go of me as the horrible "snap" was heard. I lowered my head forward and put both my hands over my face as tears came running. Several times did vomit fill my throat, but I managed to force it back down. We had done this before, and Neji knew that I needed a moment to get over the "snap".

"Are you alright?" He asked after some minutes. His voice was silent and low, perfect for my ears at the moment.

"I hate the "snap"," I mumbled shakily towards the ground. My arm felt numb, my shoulder was aching, along with every other inch of my body. I dried off the last tears and sat back up. My entire body was shaking form pain now.

"I know you do," Neji said calmly giving me the time I needed to pull myself together. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," I said without thinking it through. I used my hands to steady myself as I slowly made my way up to a standing position. I put my hand on the tree behind me to keep my balance. Now that I was standing I learned the true pain my legs were going through. I felt like a thousand of needles were shot into my legs, all the way from my feet to my hips. After three seconds they gave up and I stumbled forwards, right into Neji's unexpected arms.

"I've got you," he said hurriedly, and lifted me up so I was standing again. I instinctively put my hands on his shoulders so I wouldn't fall. If I hadn't been completely beaten up and if I hadn't just heard the "snap" I probably would have blushed and lost all my senses, but at the moment I didn't feel anything by being this close to him. I was too tired.

"I'll carry you back," I heard him say, and then he turned around and pulled me up on his back. I tried to make an effort myself too, but it didn't help much. He ran back at a slow peace. I rested my head against the back of his shoulder, feeling my mind slowly daze off. The blur of the trees came unclear and dark, and slowly everything went black.

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_I knew what he was going to do. He was going to ask me to give him my hand, and then he was going to pull. Hard. I would scream. A sickening snap would be heard, and then my arm would be on its place again. _

"_No!" _

"_Tenten, I have to," he said, and came closer, reaching for my arm. _

"_No! Don't do it!" _

"_Give me your hand."_

"_No! Please, don't do it!" Why wouldn't he just stop? Couldn't he hear my protest? It was __**my**__ god damned arm!_

"_Tenten, don't be ridicules."_

"_But the snap!" I couldn't! How could he intend to make me hear the snap?! "Neji! The snap! I hate the snap!" _

_I screamed loud as he pulled at my arm with all the strength he could. _

"_AAARRGH!"_

"Tenten!?"

I opened my eyes and turned my head quickly towards the voice. Lee was there. He stood besides me. He was taller than me. He was green. He was worried. I was in a bed. I was hot. Too hot. My pulse was high. My chest moved up and down. I panted.

Where was I?

"Lee?" was all I could get out of my mouth as I struggled to understand what had happened.

"Yeah, it's okay," he said and calmed down. I noticed that he sat on a chair besides the bed I was in. "I think you had a nightmare," he informed as I looked around the room we were in. I just nodded my head, and took a deep breath to calm myself. "You talked a lot too," he paused, like he was considering something. "Well, screamed is a better way to describe it."

"It was the "snap," I explained as bits of my dream and what had happened out in the woods returned to me. Besides me, Lee nodded his head understandingly. I struggled to sit up, but managed it without too much pain. I remembered my fight against the black haired ninja, and how Neji came to rescue me. Oh, how pathetic could I be? Needing to be rescued? I felt like dying. Then I remembered telling Amaya to run. _Oh, God…!_

"Where's Amaya?" I asked alarmed, and started to make my way out from the covers I was wrapped up in, until Lee put his hands on my shoulders and held me down.

"She's fine, Tenten," He said and pulled the covers back up over me. "Neji and I ran into her after we had taken down the bandits. She told us where to find you, so Neji ran off to help you," he explained. I managed to relax a little then. Amaya was safe, they had taken the bandits down, and I was alive – completely humiliated, but alive.

"Hey, Lee?" I heard Neji's monotonous voice from behind Lee. My heart skipped a beat, and my pulse was right up at 180 again.

Lee got up from the chair besides me and left. I heard them exchange some words before I heard a door being closed.

"How are you?" Neji asked as he walked over to me and sat down where Lee had been sitting. I looked up at him feeling embarrassed and humiliated. My cheeks were burning under his cold stare. Jeez, he could be as cold s he wanted, but he still managed to put me on fire.

"I – I'm fine," I stuttered and put my gaze on the wall on the other side of the room. I stared at the closet that was positioned there, and forced myself to wonder what was inside it. I had to work the blush down somehow.

"I heard you scream in your sleep," he said silently, with the wonderful peacefulness I loved. "Was it the "snap"?" he asked. From the corner of my eye, I caught him smirking.

"Don't make fun of it! It's horrible!" I said and turned towards him, feeling braver with the growing irritation.

"I know, I know," he said, still smirking. He was so handsome, almost too much for my sore eyes to take. "It's been a long time since the last time you dislocated your shoulder though," he said and chuckled under his breath. I felt shivers running down my spine as I thought about the last time it had happened.

"Stop talking about it," I ordered and sunk down into the covers again. "Where are we?" I asked, looking up at him. He put his elbow on the back of the chair, and rested his cheek in his hand, and looked down at me with a soft face.

"We're in a small motel. A medic nin has treated you, and she said you'll be just fine in a day or so," he explained, his tone just as I loved it: peaceful. "Amaya's quite freaked out after the fight. She keeps on worrying about your child," his smirk widened into a small grin.

I used some time to get what he was talking about. I didn't have any child? Then I remembered the lie, and the embarrassment, and it all came back to me.

"Does she still think I'm pregnant?" I groaned and put my hand on my fore head.

"You brought it on yourself," he chuckled.

"Shut up," I muttered.

There was a pause. Neither of us said anything, but we both fell into a bit more serious mood. I remembered how weak I had been against the black haired ninja. He could have killed me when I ran out of weapons. I knew I couldn't keep doing it. Going out on missions, when I wasn't even qualified to fight off _one single _opponent. It was hopeless. I had to turn to the only one I could turn to.

"Neji…" I began with difficulty. His head jerked up a little, and he refocused his eyes on my face. "Out in the woods…" It was hard. I felt like I was giving up by admitting it. Like he had defeated me. "I ran out of weapons, and I think that if you hadn't shown up…" I had to take in a huge amount of air to steady myself. I forced myself to look at him. I forced myself to be brave. "I think he would have killed me."

I bit my teeth together, and looked up at his unchanging face. After some painfully slow seconds, I couldn't look at him anymore, and turned back to the closet. He didn't say anything. After a while I started to understand that he didn't intend on saying anything either, so I did the ultimate sacrifice. I did the only thing that was right.

"You were right."

"What?"

"You asked me if I really was that useless without my weapons when we were sparring one day… And you were right. I am. I would have died without you, because I didn't have any weapons on me, and I couldn't fight that guy because I wasn't strong enough," I said keeping my eyes on the closet. "I'm not strong enough," I repeated, trying to make myself realize it.

Besides me I heard him take a sharp breath. Nervously I lifted my eyes up to look at him. His face was hard to read as always, but he looked bothered. Unpleased.

"Don't think about that now," he said silently. For a second, I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. Wasn't he even going to tell me how he was right, and that I had been a fool for thinking that I was good enough? "We'll train."

Butterflies exploded inside my stomach as he placed his free hand on mine. For a moment we just stared at each other in silence. He looked so laid back, so calm. I wished I could feel like that too.

"Do you remember what you said by the camp, before lee returned last night?" he suddenly asked.

My entire body stiffened. I had assumed that he hadn't even heard it. Even though my entire body told me to lie, I nodded my head yes. His gaze shifted over to our hands. He pushed his fingers in between mine, making my heart tremble inside my chest.

"Say it again."

I stared at him for a long time; he looked back at me. I didn't know what he was doing, and I had no idea whether I was awake or not. There was something – a particularly large butterfly, I think – that urged me to do as he said. _Oblige! _

"I love you."

It was no more than a whisper, but still I could hear it echo around in the room. I saw a smile on his face for a second, before he bent forward and carefully kissed my fore head. All I could hear was his clothes ruffling as he stood up and walked for the door.

"Get some more rest," he said silently and lingered by the door for some seconds before he walked out of the room, and, leaving me in complete silence. Only when I heard the door shut on the other side of the room did I realize that I was holding my breath.

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**A/N: **I'm sorry for any possible spelling error or whatever. I'm extremely tired now. I can almost hear my bed calling for me.

Remember to review and gain my love. Good night : )


	14. Chapter 14 Emotional Harassment

**A/N: **Sorry for any possible spelling errors. I'm tireeeed.

_Disclamer: I don't own the characters from the naruto series. _

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**Chapter 14. Emotional Harassment **

I woke up, feeling strangely well rested. I used some time to adjust my eyes to the dim lighted room, but soon I remembered where I was. In some motel. Neji and Lee weren't too far away. Deciding that everything was okay, I breathed out and closed my eyes. I tried to decide whether my body was fully healed yet or not. I lifted my left leg a little. That felt completely okay. I lifted my other leg, again without pain. I moved my fingers slightly, and rolled my shoulders feeling relived that I was okay now.

I got out of the bed and stretched out fully, lifting my arms up over my head. I was still wearing my clothes from what I guessed was yesterday now. They were dirty and bloody and needed to be changed.

Crossing the almost empty room I opened the door and popped my head out of it. My eyes were met by a much brighter light and an empty corridor.

"Neji?" I muttered and excited my room fully, closing the door behind me. "Lee?" Where were they? I turned to the left and spotted the end of the corridor, a pair of stairs that led down to what sounded like the lobby. I walked over to it and stopped on the top to take in my new surroundings. The lobby was small and cozy and absolutely not crowded. It was warmer down there. I could feel the warmth from where I stood on top of the stairs.

"Feeling better?"

My heart fluttered at the sound of his voice coming from behind me. I turned around, unable to keep a smile off of my face. He stood a few meters away from me with his hands casually shoved into his pockets. As usual the first thing I looked for was just a hint of emotion in his flawless face, and right now I could swear I saw something like a smile on his lips.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine now," I answered and took one innocent step towards him. "Where's Lee and Amaya?" I asked, trying to sound like I really cared where _she _was.

"Lee and I was ordered to escort her back to her village. The Village Leader felt safe to say that the danger was over," he explained. "Glad to be rid of her, though," he said and breathed out in relief, like he just now had realized that she was gone.

I on the other side of the conversation felt a little lost. Had they just left me here to escort her back up to the mountain? What if I had died while they were gone? Or if someone had attacked me while I was sleeping? They could have told me!

"We didn't want to wake you, and besides; I know you can take care of yourself," he said, smirking.

I stared at him for a while, trying to make my face look indifferent. How the hell could he read my mind like that? "Did you find out why they were following us?" I asked, keeping the conversation going.

"Nah, we told the Village Leader and he didn't seem to know any specific reason either, so they probably just wanted to take her hostage or something," he said and shifted his weight a little.

"Ah," was all I said. We fell silent a little. I averted my eyes from him, and studied the wooden floor beneath my feet for some time. I knew he was staring directly at me, but I wasn't brave enough to meet his gaze.

"Nothing's changed, Tenten," he suddenly said, breaking the silence. It was odd. It sounded like he had been meaning to say it for some time – like he had been preparing himself to get it out. Surprised at his tone, I looked up and our eyes locked together. He didn't look frustrated, but calm, and even – his usual appearance. I didn't understand what he meant.

"What?" I asked confused. He hesitated.

"You and I are still just team mates, sparring partners, _friends,_" he said, calmly, like he was trying to make every word sink into my brain.

My heart shattered a little inside me, but I pushed the pain away. Had I really expected anything different anyway? Just because he now knew didn't mean that he would instantly fall in love with me too. That would have been the most unlikely thing to happen, ever.

"I hadn't expected anything to change," I muttered silently. There was a short pause. Something happened in his eyes, but I couldn't quite catch it. I'd like to think that he was struggling with the situation, but that was unlikely. Neji always had control over the situation.

"When are we leaving?" I blurted out, unable to stand the silence.

"Tomorrow morning."

"I want to leave now."

"Too bad."

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't notice at first but I wasn't looking at him anymore. I was standing kind of sideways, avoiding him.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

At first I thought I had heard wrong. Was he looking for an excuse to yell at me? A chance to tell me to grow up and get a grip on my emotions?

"No. Why?"

"You're so silent."

"So are you."

I heard him sigh annoyed.

"Why are you acting like this?" he asked in a huff. The softness in his face disappeared, and was easily replaced by annoyance.

"Acting like what?"

"You're being difficult," he said. I noticed how his shoulders suddenly looked much more tense than before.

"You're the difficult one," I answered, and for the first time in my life it wasn't as far off as it used to be. He was difficult. He was stoic, and silent and hard to reach. To top it all he was the worst person _**ever**_ to fall in love with.

"Kid," he muttered under his breath, but I heard it.

"Jerk."

He gritted his teeth together, I could tell by the way his jaws tightened. Glancing down I saw his hands clench into fists inside his pockets as well. Boy, was I annoying him. It was nice to know that I was able to bring forth _some _kind of emotion on him.

"Where's Lee?" I asked after a moment of silence.

"Somewhere," he answered shortly.

I gave him a short glare for being such an immature bastard. Annoy any man enough and he turns into a three-year old.

"Does anyone else know?" he asked, changing the subject again.

"Know what?" I asked, my voice kind of sharp. He had made my edgy.

"That you are in love with me?"

"Shut up, you cocky bastard," I snapped, and felt my cheeks burn. My heart beat like crazy. I couldn't find one single good enough reason for him to need to say that out loud.

"Well?"

"No one knows," I answered and felt like breaking his perfectly shaped nose when he sighed in relief. Then I suddenly remembered Jin – _he _knew. I swallowed nervously at the memory, but didn't bring it up.

We went silent again. I felt so stupid. My face was still on fire, and I just stood there, with nothing to say. I turned around fully, and walked down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" He asked silently from behind me.

"Somewhere," I told him without looking back and continued down into the lobby and out of the main entrance.

The motel was placed deep inside the village. There wasn't much people in the streets now, and I realized that it was evening. Probably late too. The sun was setting behind the mountains in east, casting a pretty red light over the sky. But I didn't have time to look at the sky and its pretty color. I was too busy walking away from the emotional harassment Neji was making me go through.

While hurrying down the street I had to work hard to hold the crying inside. I would _not_ cry anymore now. I was done crying. Crying was for babies. No matter how much I tried to convince myself not to cry, a few tears escaped my eyes. My throat hurt and my face twisted the way faces twist when you cry.

I reached that little park in the centre of the village, where some boys had been playing soccer when we first arrived. At the very end of the park there were a set of swings. I walked over to them and sat down, using my legs to swing myself back and forth, without much enthusiasm.

I knew that he was following me. Neji had come to a halt by a tree on the other side of the park and he now stood silently watching me. I wondered why. Did he think I was going to kill myself? He could be such a drama queen sometimes.

"Go away," I said, and glared at him. He was far away, so I couldn't see his face. My heart throbbed faster when he started walking towards me. I hurriedly dried away the last remaining of the tears with the back of my hand, and sniffed one last time before he came to a halt in front of me.

"I want to be alone," I said with a thin voice and looked up at him. He had that dominant look on his face. That kind of look that made me want to dig a deep hole in the ground and bury myself in it.

"No, you don't," was his short reply.

"You don't know what I want," I said defensively and refreshed my glare.

"Why are you mad?" he asked with an annoying, calm voice. I felt my bubble burst. I stood up and glared at him – wishing my eyes could burn him to ashes.

"Because _you _make me mad! You drive me mad with your arrogance and your… _emotionlessness_ and I hate you!" I said in a blur.

He kept his mouth shut for some seconds, giving me time to take a deep breath to steady myself.

"That's not a word," he began, making my blood boil in irritation. "Tenten, I'm sorry I always make you upset, but there is something you need to know." Curiosity crawled in on me, but I refused to let it show on my angry face. "I don't love you. I care about you a lot – you are one of my dearest friends, probably _the _dearest friend, but I'm not in love with you," he said with the calm and even voice I loved. He was breaking my heart with the voice I loved. _Great. _

"I know that," my voice sounded choked, because of the sobs I was holding down. I had to swallow to keep them down, and I knew that he noticed.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked in a low tone.

I used some time to look at him. I didn't understand. Was I missing something? First he tells me that he's not in love with me, and now he's asking for permission to kiss me? What was going on?

"Tenten?" he urged.

"What are you - ?"

"Would you be mad if I kissed you?" he asked, and stepped closer to me.

"No," I answered, my voice hesitant and nervous.

Without another word or smirk or smile, he stepped closer to me and put his hands tenderly on each side of my head, pulling me closer to him. It took no more than a second before his lips landed softly on mine. The butterflies in my stomach went crazy, along with my heart that tried to beat its way out of my chest.

I was too confused to know what I felt. I was broken, but his lips against mine made me feel happy. I forced the reality away, and allowed myself to just focus on his lips moving softly against mine. He pulled away from me long before I wanted to, but there was nothing to do. I stared at him for some seconds, confusion flowing back into my head.

He made a frustrated face and took a grip around my shoulder and pulled me towards him. I stumbled into his arms, unsure of what he expected me to do.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "This is stupid."

There was a long pause.

"I don't hate you," I whispered, and sneaked my arms around his slim waist.

"I know."

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**A/N: **Heads up, people! Neji is lying; of course he loves her! I'm thinking on writing his version of this story when I'm done with this. I think that could be quite hilarious : D

Leave me a **review** and let me know what you think - and if you have any ideas of what may happen later in the story, please tell me - I know how this will end, but the stuff between is still a little unclear : )

Good night!


	15. Chapter 15 Just a Little More Pain Now

**A/N: **I haven't updated in a while because I haven't really had any time to, because of school and all that, but now - thanks to this gad damned flu, I have to stay home for seven days, which gives me time to write : D So read and tell me what you think, cause I really need some positive words from you guys right now.

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**Chapter 15. Just a little more pain now**.

An awkward silence filled the air as the three of us walked home. Neji kept on looking straight forward, not even glancing at me. Lee kept glancing worriedly at us, making my stomach twist in guilt for not telling him what was going on between Neji and I. I bit my lower lip, trying hard to keep my cool, even though my body was cringing with confusion.

We were back in Konoha a day later, and the tense silence were still trying to suffocate us. Somewhere deep within me I wanted to kill Neji for kissing me that night. Why did he do it? Did he think I couldn't see how much he regretted it? Maybe he felt the same as me? Maybe he too felt like our friendship was blacking out?

I carefully glanced over at him as we excited the Hokage's office. Lee left us, saying a quick goodbye – probably wishing to get away from us as fast as possible. I didn't blame him.

The sun was shining brightly down at us as we halted outside the Hokage tower. At first I didn't dare to look up at him, but I knew that he was about to say something and just couldn't bring myself to leave just yet.

"This..." He started, not really looking at me, but more at the people behind me. I swallowed, mentally preparing myself to die. "Has been ridiculous."

I noticed the way his shoulder seemed tense, and the way his head was slightly lowered. Was he having a hard time talking to me? What the hell's happening to the world? I remained silent, not trusting my voice at all.

"It can't continue," he mumbled. I felt my heart cringe inside my chest, begging for this torture to end. "I think it might be for the better..." Silence. A long and heavy silence separated us. I stared at him, not bothering to hide the pain I was feeling. "That you go on and move away."

He breathed out heavily and met my shocked eyes with difficulty. He was asking me to move away from him. I wasn't sure what to think. He looked so much paler than usual, and there was something in his eyes that I just couldn't understand.

"Don't you understand?" he asked suddenly. I refocused my gaze on him, still not able to say anything. "We can't do our job together like this," he said sharply. "Not when you're – "

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, suddenly feeling a whole lot stronger. His face changed from annoyed to worry in a heartbeat and finally there was time for me to have my say. "How long do you think I've been in love with you?" I asked, my voice loud. "Years! And it's never stopped me from doing my job before! Just because you know what I feel, doesn't mean that I won't be able to focus on my missions!" My hands clenched into fists, and I wasn't able to hold it back anymore.

"I've done everything to make myself at least feel like I'm worthy for you! _Everything_! And now you're asking me to move away? You can't just do this to me! You can't just throw every thought you have on me, without at least explaining it! You can't break my heart first and then _kiss me_! You can't use me like this!"

He was dead silent. He stared at me without anything to say, and I felt almost good – except for the fact that I had never felt so miserable in my whole life. I knew people were staring at us, afraid that we would end up fighting each other or something, but I didn't care. I was tired of hiding my emotions all the time.

"Do I mean _anything_ to you?" I swallowed, trying so hard I could to stay angry and not start crying.

"Is that what you feel?" He asked, with a silent voice. It caught me off guard. Hearing the struggle in his voice made me want to beg for forgiveness.

"Yeah," I breathed, hesitantly, feeling the newborn strength fade.

"Hn," He shifted his position a little turning slightly away from me. "I guess this is all pretty new for me." Was he talking to himself? "Come here." he said and started walking down the street, with his hands in his pockets. I stared after him completely dumbstruck. What was his _deal_?

"What... NO! I'm mad at you, god dammit!" I yelled after him. He sent me a heartwarming smirk over his shoulder, but didn't stop. "Neji!" I yelled, trying to make him stop, but he ignored me.

Curiosity got the better of me and I ended up following the jerk all the way to the training grounds. When he finally stopped and turned towards me, I was feeling pissed. I crossed my arms over my chest and prepared myself to drain myself of anger.

"Why did you make me go all the way up here?" I asked harshly. He sighed.

"I didn't, you followed me because you wanted to."

I grimaced at him, and turned slightly making it completely clear that I had not forgiven him for what he had said.

"What I said might have come out a little wrong," he said, slowly, like he was afraid I might explode if he didn't think through his words properly.

I glanced over at him, but was quick to look away from him when our eyes met. A light breeze pushed through the threes, white clouds complimented the sky. A perfect summer afternoon.

"Everything turns out wrong between us lately, don't you think?" he asked softly, looking up at the sky. I sighed and looked down at the green grass under me feet.

"I guess," I mumbled too tired of everything to give any real response. "Do you really want me to move?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to here the answer.

"No," he said bluntly, still looking at the blue sky.

"But you said..." I started my voice getting more and more frustrated by each passing second.

"I know. I say a lot of stupid things I don't mean lately," he said, and moved his head down so he could meet my eyes. My reaction was slow, and it took me some seconds before I remembered that I was mad at him and looked away. "Tenten..." he murmured, and stepped closer to me.

I stumbled backwards, feeling alarmed. I wasn't going to let him mess with me anymore. "Don't," I said shortly, looking up at him. I knew the worry I was feeling was showing in my eyes.

"What?"

"I'm not going to let you mess with my head anymore. Don't you understand that it hurts me?" I asked, frustrated.

"I don' mean to mess with your head."

"But that's what your doing! Lately everything you do confuses me! And I'm tired of it, I don't want this anymore," I said, and swallowed to steady my voice.

He ignored what I said and stepped closer to me. I stepped away put he grabbed me by my wrist, forcing me to stay. "Please just give me chance to tell you the truth," he said slowly and hesitantly, like he wasn't sure if he really wanted to tell me the truth. I looked up at him, silently cursing him for being taller and stronger than me.

I sighed heavily, but kept my eyes on him so he wouldn't try to do anything again. I never thought that I would be afraid of him trying to kiss me, that had always been the thing I wanted the most, but not anymore.

"I don't want to lose you," he said silently, keeping his eyes on mine. "But if you have to move, we should stop this right now." He talked slowly, so I could try and keep up with him.

"Stop what?" I asked, feeling just a little lost.

"You and me, it'll never work out," he said. "We're obviously not meant for each other."

"You know, I kind of realized that when you told me you didn't love me," I mumbled, sourly.

"Hn." he didn't respond much. I raised my brows, what kind of expression was that? His eyes were staring at his hand locked around my wrist. "You've gotten thinner," he said out of the blue, and met my eyes again.

"What?" I asked once again caught off guard.

"Are you eating enough?" he asked, looking me up and down worriedly.

"Uh," I started, trying to remember if I'd eaten enough lately. I had skipped a lot of breakfasts, and dinner wasn't very appealing to eat with those two life-wreckers. When I thought about it I hadn't eaten enough lately, and that might be one of the reasons to my extreme emotional problems lately. "I _have_ skipped a lot of meals lately," I said, suddenly realizing that my problems were more serious than I first had thought.

"I can see that," he pointed out, looking at my waist. "I can see it here too," he said and traced his finger over my collarbone. "And here," he moved his finger to softly stroke my jaw line. "You have to eat, stupid," he mumbled and let go of my wrist to put his hand softly on my hip, keeping me close to him.

"Agh, you're doing it again," I whined, and tried to pull away.

"No," he protested and wrapped his arms around me so I couldn't get away from him. "I'm not going to mess around anymore, I'm just saying that you look thinner."

"Was that the big truth you were going to let me in on?" I asked sarcastically.

"No," he said and pulled me into a big hug. "That truth... Well I'm not sure if I should tell you, since you and I can never be together anyway," he mumbled into my ear.

"I'm not moving, Neji. Only mom and dad thinks that," I said, and breathed a short, bitter laugh.

"So it's safe for me to tell you then?" he asked silently. I nodded my head against his shoulder.

"I was lying the other night," he whispered softly into my ear, and tightened his hold around my waist a little. I wanted to turn my head so I could look up at him, but he held me too tightly, giving me no room to move in. "Now you really should go home and eat something." All I managed to get out was a half choked giggle, that wasn't a happy sound at all. I was frustrated and confused.

"You mean you lied when you said you didn't love me?" I asked without much confidence in my voice.

"Kinda," he muttered. My heart picked up its speed quite dramatically. I blinked a few times, trying to convince myself that I in fact was awake. And I was.

"Now go home and eat," he said and released me from his arms.

"But – "

"We're not going to end up together, Tenten, you know that. Go home and eat," he muttered and started to make his way home. "Good night."

At first all I could do was stare after him. He was literarily throwing me back and forth like a ball. Couldn't he just make up his mind already!? Was he trying to kill me?!

"You're still messing with my head, you know!" I screamed after him. He didn't react much, just kept walking forward. Like always.

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**A/N:** Notice how Neji is a complete asshole sometimes. I think he's struggling with his feelings. poor guy. Tell me what you think? :D


	16. Chapter 16 Intruders

**A/N:** I don't do anything when I'm ill, so I've just been sitting on my butt writing and watching TV all day. Luckily there was a South Park marathon on : D So I did this chapter in one day, hope you all like it, and let me say - it is now the seriousness begins!!!

Prepare for MAKE OUT SESSIONS!!!!

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the naruto series : P  


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**Chapter 16. Intruders  
**

I made my way home with my hands crossed over my chest and a pissed look glued to my face. I didn't know what to feel, or think or anything. Neji just made me so angry, and _so_ frustrated. I didn't care whether he thought we could be together or not, I wasn't leaving him anyway.

I walked in through the front door of my house, without saying hello and discretely made my way up the stairs. Just when I thought I was unbusted, mom came out of my bedroom, looking at me with a tense look on her face. She was prepared for war – and so was I. Neji had made sure for that.

"Hey, honey," she said with the warm and motherly voice I loved. She smiled at me as she excited my room fully and came to stand in front of me. "How was the mission?"

"Fine," I answered shortly. "What were you doing in my room?"

"I changed your bed sheets," she answered, a little hurt from the harshness of my tone. I felt bad for asking what she was doing in there. She was my mom, not my evil twin.

"Oh… Thanks a lot," I said and smiled at her, trying to look convincing. Mom looked at me for a while and then she muttered something under her breath and went to the bathroom, probably to clean the sink or something.

I walked straight into my bedroom and closed the door behind me, revealed to finally experience some time alone. I sat down on my bed, trying to make my muscles relax, but failed. Neji's words rang around in my head, continuing to fill me with new questions and confusion every minute. He was so passive. One minute he acted like he wanted me the same way I wanted him, and the next he would reject me like I was the worst thing that could have happened to him. How could I handle that?

I stared down at the floor and tried desperately to think of something that could help me to understand the genius's complicated mind.

Three short knocks on my door broke through my train of thoughts and brought me back to reality. Mom opened the door and closed it behind her without a word.

"Tenten, as much as you try to hide it, I can see that something is wrong," she said, looking at me with a caring smile on her face. She crossed the room with three elegant steps and sat down on the bed besides me, gaining no special response from me.

"Please tell me what's going on in your head," she said and put a hand on my shoulder for support. I glanced up at her for a short second, and then back at the floor.

"It's complicated," I said, and prayed she would leave it there.

"How? What is complicated, honey?" I sighed.

"Neji and I are having a hard time lately," I said, trying not to make the love-part too obvious. "We've argued a lot."

"I don't understand this. You and Neji have always been such good friends. Guy said that you two never had argued before, what's going on between the two of you lately?"

Biting my bottom lip I realized that my mom was going to find out about my secrete. Something in me started hoping that if she found out she would give up the moving plans forever so she wouldn't get in the way of my love life, but an other part found that kind of unlikely.

"Uh," I mumbled, trying to find the right words. "You know we've spent a lot of time together, and I just… I don't know. We've just…" I muttered, unable complete any sentences. What would I tell her anyway? She wasn't supposed to know – _no one _was supposed to know, but somehow they just found out, one after one.

"Tenten…" she said quietly and put her arm more around me. "You two are close, aren't you?" she asked in a caring tone. She was looking at me; trying hard to see what was behind the mask I desperately was trying to hold on. "Exactly _how _close are you?"

"We're friends," I stated, staring intensely down towards the floor. "Good friends." I heard her sigh besides me. It was probably sinking in, she finally started to understand.

"So this is why you are so unwilling to move?" she asked hesitantly. I bit my bottom lip, struggling to keep my cool.

"Everything is horrible, mom," I blurted out, my voice tearing up, and suddenly I felt like a little girl again. I leaned closer to her and put my head on her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, Tennie," she cooed, and hugged me closer. It was nice.

"We can't move," I said. A few tears escaped my eyes, but I quickly blinked them away. "I have to stay here and do missions for Konoha. I have to fight with Neji and Lee, I _have_ to stay here."

She was silent for a while, and I could feel the guilt she was feeling in the air.

"You've grown so much, Tenten. Sometimes I forget that you're still just a little girl. You're just fifteen years old, and you're already so mature," she said and pulled a little away too look at me. "But I can't leave you here. I have to know that you are alright."

"I'm a _ninja_, mom. I know how to take care of myself," I pointed out flatly.

"Which puts you in danger almost every day. I am so afraid you won't come home one day."

"I won't be in less danger in an other village, mom." She sighed heavily. I knew she was tired of all this, but so was I.

"You are a pretty girl, sweetie. You're talented and you're sweet, everyone will like you. All the boys there will be – "

"I'm not leaving him," I cut her off sharply, finally lifting my head up to look her right into her eyes. "I don't care whether he cares or not, I'm not leaving."

She stared at me, like she didn't believe what she heard. "You really are in –"

"Please, don't say it aloud," I rushed, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

"This is a lot to ask of you, but you'll just have to accept it. Things change, and that's something everyone have to accept sooner or later."

She left me in silence. I was grateful for it, I needed to be alone. I lay down on the bed, resting my head on my soft pillow. I tried to ignore the million questions in my mind, tried to forget everything so I could get some rest, but it was close to impossible.

It took some time but I managed to fall asleep eventually, but it wasn't a very pleasant sleep. I dreamt that the black haired ninja came after me again, and that I was too weak to fight him. It made me wake up in panic. I looked around the room; slowly calming down when I realized it was all a bad dream.

I threw the bed sheets away, and moved my legs over the edge of the bed, sitting up properly. I rubbed my eyes with my hands tiredly, and realized that I had fallen asleep without changing or brushing my teeth.

Groaning slightly, I stood up and made my way to the bathroom. I did all the bedtime rituals quickly and walked back to my bedroom again, almost asleep.

I lay down on my bed and enjoyed the breeze that lifted my white curtains...until I remembered that I hadn't left the window open. I sat up abruptly, and crawled over to the window looking out of it. I scanned the street but there wasn't anyone out there.

I jumped out of my bed and rushed around in the house, looking for an intruder everywhere. I had the feeling that someone was watching me all the time, but I couldn't find whoever it was anywhere.

"Where are you?" I muttered silently, and turned around in the living room, scanning the room with my eyes.

"Hey."

I yelped in surprise and spun around throwing my fist out ready to stop the bastard from ever intruding anyone's house again.

"Wow, easy!" Neji hissed and blocked my fist and captured it in his own hand. I blinked at him, not sure if I really was awake after all. "Are you okay?" He asked, confused by my reaction.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, a sharp edge entering my voice.

"I couldn't sleep," he said it like it was the most casual thing in the world. "You're window was open, but you weren't in your room, so I came down…"

"No, wait, there are someone in here!" I hissed, and started looking around again. Neji stayed silent for some seconds, and then he raised a brow at me.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I woke up from a bad dream, and went to the bathroom, and when I came back my window was open!" I hissed and looked at him with frustration in my face. "Can you _please_ just take a look?" I asked.

He sighed a tiny sigh, and activated his byakugan. I watched him as he scanned the house with a concentrated look on his face. He looked a little scary with the byakugan activated in the dark. He looked slightly demonic.

"You, me and your parents are the only ones here," he stated and deactivated his super eyes. I almost felt a little disappointed. I had been completely sure there was someone here, and now I had completely made a fool out of myself.

"But I was so sure there was someone here. Someone was watching me," I explained in a whisper, trying not to wake mom and dad.

"Maybe you're just very tired," he said. "You might be imagining things."

I sighed. I was tired. He probably was right… like _always._ But why the hell was he here? He had never visited me in the middle of the night before? And I thought he had given up on us? What was going on? _Aaargh..!_

"Okay, but why are _you_ here then?" I asked again, and put my hands on my hips.

"I told you, I couldn't sleep," he repeated, and met my eyes with a stoic expression on his face.

"I thought you had given up on us," I said, not sure if saying that was a nice move at all.

He took in a sharp breath, and I notice his lips stretching out a little. "This isn't easy for me either," he started, and put his hands into his pockets, looking really uncomfortable.

"What isn't easy for you?" I asked, raising my brows. "Can't you even say it?" Now I was annoying him. He glared at me, and looked really scary in the dark. I took a step back, trying to make it look casual, but he probably sensed my slight fear. "When you said you were _kind of _lying… What did you really mean?" I demanded with a small voice.

"What do you think?" he snapped and kept glaring.

"Why can't you just say it?" I asked. He hesitated. "Are you ashamed of it? Is that it?"

"No."

"Well, I don't believe that," I said harshly, still whispering. "I think you are ashamed of me."

"Don't say that," he hissed, his anger rising dangerously.

"I don't get why you came here. I don't deserve your attention, do I? I'm too weak and helpless – "

"I came because I couldn't stop thinking about you."

Silence…

We were so silent I was sure that I could hear my own heartbeat. I swallowed, and dropped my hands by my sides. Neji stared at me, waiting for me to say something. His face looked tense. He looked like someone had damaged his pride. Did it damage his pride to admit affection towards someone?

And then I realized what he really was saying; he was thinking of me. He had been lying in his bed, thinking about me and he had been unable to sleep. And he had come to me. In the middle of the night. To _me_.

This was so romantic!

I quickly reminded myself to stay cool. I realized that I was holding my breath, and discretely started to breath again.

"You did?" I whispered, unbelievingly.

He nodded his head. "I intended to watch you sleep, but you weren't in your bed," he explained, and finally, the tense look on his face faded and was replaced by a teasing smirk.

I felt myself blush fiercely and looked down, praying that the dark was hiding my red cheeks. I had to take in a huge amount of air to steady my overjoyed heart. He wanted to watch me sleep..!

"You said we couldn't be together," I reminded him, and rubbed the back of my neck uncomfortably.

"And we probably can't. I just… had to see you," he sounded like he had to push the words out. Poor guy, he was so used to never talk about his feelings and now all this? He was probably having the hardest time of his life right now. Kind of.

"This is all so…"

"Stupid?"

"Way stupid," I breathed and offered a bitter, soundless laugh. "I told you; I'm not leaving. We _can _be together," I insisted and looked up at the taller boy with what felt like begging eyes.

He didn't move his eyes away from me for even a second. "You can't keep denying the – "

"I'm not the one in denial. Mom and dad are!" I said, and struggled to keep my voice low. "They deny the fact that I'm not going to move with them."

He chuckled slightly. "You don't give up, do you?"

"No."

"Good," he said and took my left hand in his. It was an innocent gesture, but it warmed my entire body and made my blood boil. "Did you eat anything?"

"Aw, crap! I forgot!"

"Don't you ever get hungry?" He asked, looking at me like I was some kind of freak. I grimaced and averted my eyes from him. "You aren't on one of those sick diets are you?" He asked, looking worriedly at me.

"What? No," I said, and crossed my arms over my chest, trying to hide whatever he was looking at. "I just forget to eat all the time," looking up I could see that he didn't believe that for one second. "Seriously! There so much going on that I get completely exhausted, and today I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow," okay, that was not true, but I had to say something!

He rolled his eyes and stepped closer to me, placing both his hands on my shoulders. "You have to eat."

"I know," I muttered and stuck out my tongue at him. He was taken off guard by it and looked at me with a slight annoyed look. "Sorry," I muttered and grinned at him.

My heart throbbed painfully fast as he sneaked his arms around my waist, and pulled me closer to him. Neither of us said anything, and I liked it that way. My voice was useless now anyway. With a huge lack of confidence I put my hands on his strong shoulders, not sure if I was doing it right at all. He smiled at me, his eyes staring at me with a whole new softness that I had never seen before. He put his lips on mine careful not to do anything I didn't want to.

I felt like I was going to explode. Finally he was kissing me, and I was sure that he wanted to do it, too. I knew that he cared for me, and that he was thinking about me.

As his lips moved against mine I grew more eager, I wanted more. I slid my arms fully around his neck and attempted to deepen the kiss but he broke apart.

"What?" I asked, afraid he didn't like the kiss. He lifted one of his hands to stroke the back of my head caringly. His fingers moved lovingly through my loose hair, and gave me Goosebumps all over my body. "Neji?" I questioned, my voice not even a whisper anymore.

"I just can't get enough of you," he mumbled. "I've known you for such a long time, but I've never really felt your hair before. I never noticed how soft your skin is… Everything is so new," he said silently, still looking at me with those beautiful eyes. "I can't believe I never saw how pretty you are."

My heart fluttered. I quickly decided that nothing could feel better then this. Being in his arms was the best feeling ever.

He kissed me again, wrapping his strong arms around me. It took me some time, but after a while I realized that I was making out with Neji Hyuga! It made me want to scream out loud. Every inch of my body was trembling with excitement.

"Don't be nervous," he mumbled against my lips. I had no idea how he always knew what I was feeling, but it was kind of nice – sometimes that is.

"I'm not," I mumbled back, never taking my lips off of his.

"I should probably leave," he said after a while, and broke apart. I panted slightly. "They'll notice if I'm away for too long." He held my hands in his and smiled at me and lifted our hands to kiss my fingers.

I thanked the dark for hiding my extremely flustered face, and tried my very best to act cool. Hiding the disappointment was harder though. I didn't want him to leave at all.

He let go of my hands and walked over to the door in the hallway. I walked after him not sure what to say.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said and opened the door.

"Uhm, Neji," I mumbled. He stopped and turned towards me.

"What?" he asked.

"This… Where do we… Where do we stand… now?" I asked, hesitantly. I bit my bottom lip trying to look cute, so he wouldn't laugh at me. He sent me that hot smirked that made me feel like I was melting.

"Nothing's changed. You and I have always been close," he said and leaned against the doorframe. "It just took me some time to realize."

I grinned, and I couldn't stop it. I probably looked like an idiot, but I felt so happy. He reached out and grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him. He kissed my cheek lovingly before he took one step backwards and waved goodbye.

I stared after him as he walked down the street until I couldn't see him anymore, and even then I couldn't bring myself to close the door and go back to my room. Butterflies were swirling around in my stomach and tears were forming in my eyes. I blinked them away and forced myself to close the door.

I sighed one last time to calm myself. Now I only had to find a solution to the moving-issue and then my life would be exactly like I had always wanted it.

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**A/N: **Crappy ending, but WHATEVER. Tell me what you think? :D


	17. Chapter 17 Close Range

**A/N:** I've started another story! : D It is mainly a love story, but it's also about team gai as they started as a team, and how they all grew together and so on. I think it'll turn out really cute, and I've got some nice reviews already, so I am super happy. This is still my favorite of the two, so no worries, no one will be forgotten.

I also think it's best to tell you guys that I think we are slowly closing in on the climax in the story, and then we will be closing in on the end of it. So yeah, I don't know how many more chapter's I'll wirte, but it'll be _at least_ up to 25, that much I can promise : D

_Disclaimer: don't own naruto stuff. _

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**Chapter 17. **

I woke up with the hugest grin, ever, on my face, which was almost a new experience for me. I threw the bed sheets away, and got out of bed. I fixed myself in the bathroom pretty quickly and dashed out of the house, _almost _forgetting to eat again, but grabbed an apple from the kitchen before I left. Wouldn't want to upset Neji.

I walked down the street, not even thinking about mom and dad. All my mind could evolve around was last night. I constantly reminded myself that I had made out with Neji, and all the things he said to me. My butterflies were going crazy with excitement. I couldn't wait to see him again.

As always the sun was shining warmly down on me, adding even more happiness to my mood. I headed right for the Hyuuga mansion, not really knowing what I would do when I got there. The time was eight – something – in the morning, and Neji had probably been awake for at least two hours now.

I stopped outside the main entrance, just a few strides away. It took only three minutes before Neji came out. He spotted me at once, and I was pretty sure he had known I was out there.

"Hey," he said silently and walked over to me. I was struck by a wave of nerves. How would I act? I desperately tried to keep my cool and not act like an overexcited kid in front of him.

"Hi," my voice was an embarrassment, to high pitched. I put my hands behind my back, and carefully smiled up at him, fighting the dumb grin that was threatening to enter my face.

"We should go train," he said, and turned with his hands in his pockets, and started walking down the street. I blinked a little.

"Train?" I stuttered, a little taken aback, I had at least thought he would want to talk a little before training.

"I promised to help you train, didn't I?" he asked, and smirked at me over his shoulder. My heart skipped a beat and I didn't need to think twice before I was right by his side, ready to train and get stronger.

As we walked we fell into a wierd silence. It wasn't tense, I could tell that Neji was completely relaxed, but I didn't understand him fully. He was acting like nothing had changed. Had last night been a dream? No, it couldn't have been. I discreetly glanced up at the boy I hoped I could call my boyfriend now. He was looking straight ahead. I sighed and turned towards the street in front of us again.

We rounded a few corners, and began to walk up the thin path that led up to Team Gai's usual training field.

"What do you plan on teaching me?" I asked as we came to a halt and he turned to face me.

"What do you _want_ to learn?" he asked, staring me directly into my eyes. I gulped and tried to get up with a good suggestion. What did I _want_ to learn by a genius?

"Hmm…" I muttered, trying to think. He waited patiently, still looking at me as I looked around a little. "Teach me to fight at close range," I said, and grinned. He offered a slight smile back, it almost melted my heart.

"You already know how to do it, I'll only help you improve it," he said shortly and walked a few steps backwards to create a fitting distance between us. "You should never underestimate yourself."

I was thankful for what he said. It made me feel like he really did believe in me. I smiled and got ready to spar as I saw him do the same.

"I think we mainly have to work on your reflexes," he said, and took one step towards me, and lifted his leg in a high kick, that would have hit my head if I hadn't blocked it with my arm. He lowered his leg. "See? You know what to do, you just need to practise doing it faster," he lectured, and kicked again, faster this time. I blocked it the same way.

He clenched his fists and began hitting them towards me, some were high, and others came low. I had to block them all, which was easy at the beginning but after some minutes he started changing his rhythm every other minute, making it hard to calculate what his next move would be. He also picked up his pace quite drastically.

Soon I started panting and sweat began to form on my forehead, but I refused to let myself think about it. None of us said anything, the only sound that was heard was my silent grunts as I blocked and pushed his arms away.

I couldn't believe him when he started kicking too, soon he was really fighting, and all I could do was block it. It was harder this way. I had to concentrate on four different angles all the time, and I didn't have time to think through his next move at all. I had to trust my reflexes. This was all so new to me that he landed a few hits on me. He didn't stop though. If I let one hit distract me he would only kick me from the other side. I had to stay focused.

After half an hour Neji calmed down and stood up straight, a signal for me to relax. I panted heavily, and swallowed a little to bring some moisture to my dry throat, waiting for him to say something.

"Good," he muttered, and smiled at me. I grinned back, it was a half hearted gesture, 'cause I was still struggling to regain my breath. "We still need to work on a few things though. We'll do this one more time, for twenty minutes, before you start fighting back. You'll have to block and strike at the same time. Think you can handle it?" He added with an arrogant tone, making me feel like ripping his head off. _Of course I could handle it…!_

"Of course," I said under my breath, and straightened up. Everything happened like first time. He gave me an easy start, and advanced his strikes after a while. I did it better this time, but it was hard and took a lot of concentration.

He took it one level higher this time, and I ended up on my back on the ground. I breathed out, panting heavily.

"Get up."

Oh, how much did I hate it when he said that? I jumped up on my feet again, with a new found strength. I caught him smirking, but ignored it and allowed myself to strike at him for a change. It seemed to be his original plan, and we ended up sparring each other. I knew I wasn't allowed to use weapons, and had purposely left them at home.

* * *

Two hours later Neji announced that we were done. I was ready to collapse, but I tried not to let it show. I was happy to see that Neji was a little bruised and tired himself. I had even made him pant a little..! I was proud to say the least.

We moved in between the trees to get some shade. I immediately lay down in the cool grass, and sighed with satisfaction when my body finally realized that the training was over and it could relax.

"I think…" my silent and monotonous team mate, friend and possibly boyfriend started, as he sat down besides me, crossing his legs. I opened my eyes and eyed him questioningly. "… that you did a good job today."

My lips cracked into a grin. "Thanks," I said, and tried to keep my voice normal, even though it was hard after receiving a compliment from Neji.

He fell silent then, and leaned back on his hands to look up at the sky between all the green leaves. I put my hands behind my head and allowed myself to close my eyes, and maybe catch a quick slumber. I knew he could stare up at the sky for ages if he wanted to.

I must have fallen asleep, but I woke up to a comfortable silence and a slight tingling on my arm. I instantly knew it was him, and my heart almost exploded, but I managed to calm it down.

Softly his hand started to move against the skin on my bare arm. I didn't open my eyes in fear of him stopping. So I just pretended to be asleep, even though he probably knew I was awake, and enjoyed the tingling feeling he gave me by caressing the thin skin under my arm.

"I know you are awake," he muttered after a while. I just stuck my tongue out at him, not even caring to open my eyes.

"You are disturbing the silence," I whispered, still with my eyes closed.

"Hn," he grunted and pulled his hand back. My eyes shot open.

"Hey!" I protested. "I was enjoying that!" I sat up and stared accusingly at him, trying to make him bend under my intense stare. Yeah… that would never happen.

"You know what's so great about you?" Neji asked suddenly, just looking at me with a completely calm face. I thought about it for a while, but couldn't get up with anything that might be great for him. "You are so easy to please," a weak smile entered his face. "Can you really forget everything just by being with me?"

I stared at him for some seconds, trying to get what he was saying. I didn't forget everything… I was just more aware of him, something I always was. "Huh?"

"You've been sad and unpredictable for over a week now, and now you're completely in harmony. Did you forget about the new house?"

My mouth fell open. How could he ruin my mood like this? I was finally enjoying some freedom from that horrible fact and now he was digging it up again?

"You know I actually enjoyed not thinking about that for once," I mumbled and rose from the ground, ready to move again. He followed suit, but didn't let me go.

"What I'm saying is that you still have a lot of things to deal with," his voice was dominant, like he was talking to a kid. "I don't want you to move, and you've gotta talk your parents out of it. At least make them let you stay here."

"I've tried," I said, and met his eyes, feeling the hopelessness entering my gaze.

"You just have to try again. Prove to them how much you want to stay here… With me." I knew he added the last part just to be evil. "You can't give up," he said and kissed my cheek. I had to bite my lip so I wouldn't start yelling at him for being so evil. He was using my love for him against me… himself!

"You're evil."

"I'm damn smart."

I sighed heavily, and knew that I would not sleep well the upcoming night. I was sensing a war with my parents.

"Did you eat today?" Neji asked, changing the subject.

"I ate an apple," I answered truthfully.

I felt myself shrink into the size of a shrimp when I saw the reaction on Neji's face. He wasn't glaring, it was more like he was extremely frustrated with me, and didn't know how to handle it, so it all just ended up in his face, making him look kind of scary.

"An _apple?_" he repeated disbelievingly. I looked from left to right, trying to judge which way was the better escaping route. He sighed heavily and grabbed my arm and dragged me with him towards the path that led down to the village.

"Neji?" I asked, a little unsure of what to do.

"I'm taking you out for lunch," was his short reply. I grinned. I didn't mind that.

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**A/N:** You guys know what I like by now, right? reviews! I want to know what you think :D


	18. Chapter 18 Team Gai

**A/N: **I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but school has been pure terror lately, and I barely made it out of this last week alive! But I did, and now I've got a new, pretty long chapter ready for you. So this might be the last "calm" chapter for awhile. I'm planning to start making some action here : D

_Disclamer: I don't own anything fromthe naruto series. _

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**Chapter 18.**

I shut the door to my bedroom, hoping to block their yelling out, but it didn't. I swallowed to steady my shaky muscles and sniffed a little, fighting the sobbing that wanted out.

Mom and dad were yelling at each other, both frustrated to the limit with the whole situation I was pulling them into. Mom was starting to feel bad for forcing me to leave, and dad had suggested to let me stay alone, mom had freaked completely, and that's when the loud arguing had begun. Never before had my parents yelled at each other like this, and it made me feel almost scared.

I sat down on my bed and took a deep breath. I regretted yelling at them, I regretted making them yell at each other, but it seemed necessary. They had to understand that I couldn't leave the village.

I put my head on my soft pillow, and closed my eyes, trying hard to block their muffled voices out of my head. I reached out and pulled my blue sheets over me, intending to comfort myself, but I didn't feel comforted at all. I wanted Neji.

* * *

I woke up with a feeling of stress in my chest. I looked around in the dark room, and felt like someone was there, just like last night with Neji. I was too tired to sit up and take a good look around, so I just gazed around with my eyes only half way open and my head resting heavily on my pillow.

I couldn't see anyone either, and felt myself slowly calm down. The silence was soothing the stress down for me, so I could easily drift back to sleep again.

* * *

The morning came and I quickly realized that not only had I overslept, I was alone. _Completely_ alone. Mom and dad had left without even waking me… they must have been so used to me not being home when they get up that they had forgotten. Or they were mad at me for making them argue last night.

I sighed and made a frustrated face, before I pushed the bed sheets off of my body and rolled out of my bed. I stumbled out of my bedroom and into the bathroom. My appearance was kind of impressing. I had fallen asleep fully dressed. My usual hairdo was completely messed up. I took a quick refreshing shower and got dressed within fifteen minutes. It was nice to have the house to myself for once, I could take the time to eat a nice breakfast while planning what I would so with the day. Of course I wanted to meet Neji, but I didn't really know where he was by now.

I left the house around twelve o'clock, and walked down the street towards the Hyuuga mansion without really realizing it. My mind was still thinking about mom and dad's arguing last night, and guilt was floating around me like a thick fog.

I easily ignored the villagers in the street and just kept walking until I reached Neji's home. I stared at the door for some time, wondering what the chances were for him being home now. The only reason he would want to stay in there was to train with his uncle, and if that was what he was up to at the moment there was no way he would come out to be with me.

I ended up walking more, not knowing where to go at all. Where would I go without Neji? I walked up to the training grounds me and Neji had trained in yesterday, not knowing whether I really wanted to train or not.

Lee was there, training his Tai-Jutsu as always. I sat down on the ground by a tree and watched him for some time, waiting for him to notice me. It was almost stupid how he could be so focused on his training that he didn't notice someone approaching him. A ninja should always notice other's presence.

"Oh," Lee froze with his leg in mid air as he spotted me. "Hi, Tenten!" He greeted me with a huge grin, his white teeth shining blindingly towards me.

"Hi, Lee," I said, not managing to return his burning enthusiasm.

"Do you want to train with me?"

I almost flinched at the thought of training with his extreme exercises. "I don't think I'd survive that, Lee," I said and rubbed the back of my neck, innocently. He looked at me, not entirely getting my point.

"So why did you come here then?" he asked and walked over to sit down next to me. "You look upset again," he pointed out. I sighed and met his big round eyes with a forced smile.

"I made mom and dad start a fight yesterday," I said simply, and pulled my knees up under my chin. "I just don't want to move, but…" I trailed off. Lee put a supporting hand on my back.

"Tenten, no matter what happens, you will _always _have me!" Lee said after a moment of silence. I glanced up at him and had to smile back at him as he grinned widely and gave me his classic thumbs up.

"Thanks, Lee," I muttered and put my head on his shoulder, simply feeling the need for a hug. I looked up at the trees that hovered above our heads. The green leaves were swaying in the slight breeze, in a calming motion. I put my eyes on the familiar clearing in front of us, where Team Gai had been training together ever since the Academy. The setting reminded me of why I couldn't leave this village.

"Where's Neji?" Lee asked out of no where.

"I don't know," I muttered, and felt another wave of bitterness wash over me.

"Are things alright between the two of you now?" He asked, his voice a little hesitant, afraid he might upset me even more by asking.

"Yeah, its okay," I answered, and considered telling Lee that we had kissed, but decided to leave that part out. I wasn't even sure if we really were together or not yet. "We talked."

He rubbed my back in a friendly manner, and once again brought a smile on my lips. "I hope everything will work out. Team Gai will never be the same is you leave," Lee said quietly, something very unlike him. "You wanna go find Neji?" He asked, changing the subject. "We could go eat at Ichiraku's," Lee grinned. "As the team we are."

"As the team we'll always be," I said and lifted my head from his shoulder to grin back at him. I could easily see how much he appreciated that comment. It warmed to see that I meant so much to him as a friend.

So Lee and I ran down the path, and jumped up on the roof tops to search for Neji. Between us it almost felt like a game of hide and seek, with Lee's overwhelming energy and good mood, and my need for a positive day.

I spotted him walking with straight back, and his hands in his pockets as usual. I jumped off of the roof I was standing on and dumped down right in front of him, grinning with the new born excitement in my belly.

"Hi, Neji!" I said and grinned as I stood up and folded my hands behind my back. He would probably have been surprised by my sudden entrance if he hadn't noticed my presence long before I'd found _him. _

"Hi," he said, and smirked at me. "You're in a good mood. Did the talk with you parents go well?"

"Agh, I don't want to talk about that," I groaned, and fought the horrible feeling that was forming in my stomach. I successfully kept the grin on my face. "Where are you going?" I asked casually.

"I was intending to find _you_ actually," he said with a hot smirk on his face, that was about to send me head first into a coma. I took a deep breath to steady myself as he stepped closer and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. My heart almost burst into a thousand butterflies, and it all ended up in my face, making my cheeks burn with a heavy blush.

He stayed close to me. We stared into each others eyes for a moment. His hand stayed on my cheek, his fingertips gently moving against my flustered cheek while his smirk only grew hotter an hotter with each passing second. I wasn't sure how much I could handle…

"Aha! Neji!" Lee's overwhelming voice broke the romantic silence, and made both of us jump away from the other. The green beast crashed down besides us threw his arms in the air. "Neji! Tenten and I have decided that we shall go and eat at Itchirau's!" Lee exclaimed, and lifted his thumb up in front of Neji's handsome face. Neji's eyebrows went up a few inches, but he smiled slightly anyway.

"Fine with me," he said bluntly and started walking towards the small ramen shop. Lee and I grinned at each other before we both ran up to his side and walked with him.

It was nice hanging out just the three of us again, and not for a mission or training, but to eat lunch together. I could not stop myself from smiling.

There was no one else in the small both, so Itachirau was pretty happy to have us there. We sat down, me in the middle, and ordered. I was happy Lee had suggested to go eat, 'cause I had forgotten to eat again before I left the house, and I wouldn't have Neji finding out that I had skipped another meal again – on accident.

"Gai Sensei is going to teach me this new technique tomorrow! I can't wait! That's why I was training today, to prepare myself, both mentally and physically!" Lee boomed excitedly.

I sat there besides him and pretended to be listening as he started on a long speech about him and Gai's advanced training, and how effective they had been lately. What I really was paying attention to was Neji's presence. I felt so much calmer inside now that he was besides me. He didn't say or do anything. He was just leaning his elbows on the counter, not even bothering to pretend to be interested in Lee's story.

I couldn't help but wish he was more "all over me". I imagined him putting his arm around my waist and that he would kiss me in front of everyone else so they all could see that he wanted _me_, and no one else. Something told me that that would never happen. He hadn't even kissed me on the lips since he came to visit me that night.

"I couldn't stop running! I was overwhelmed with energy! I ran for days! _Without one single break!" _Lee kept on talking besides me, growing more and more eager. "Neji! Don't you want to join Gai Sensei and I tomorrow!?" Lee asked and leaned over the counter, trying to gain Neji's attention.

I turned to watch Neji's priceless expression. A look of pure annoyance complimented his face. His lips pulled into a thin line, and his brows slightly furrowed.

"No," he answered shortly, and kept his eyes warily on the intense boy that slowly sat back down on his chair.

"_Fine,_" Lee muttered and turned to me instead, all the enthusiasm returning. "What about you, Tenten?!" He grinned.

"Gah…" I sighed and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Lee. I… Promised Neji to help him train tomorrow," I improvised, and glanced quickly at Neji, signalling for him to play along. He only glanced at me in return and kept silent.

"Oh," Lee breathed and looked at little disappointed. Luckily the ramen was ready, and by the time the bowl of hot soup was placed in front of him; Lee had forgotten all about the conversation. I heard Neji sigh on my other side, and turned to look at him. The look on his face told me that he was tired of Lee's constant chatting, but I knew that he kind of liked it too.

"So, we'll train tomorrow?" I asked, attempting to start a conversation. He glanced up at me, his hypnotizing eyes making me bite down on my lip. It was silly; I almost felt a little nervous talking to him.

"Yes, we will," he answered and took a sip of his ramen.

"Do you want to hear about that time when Gai Sensei taught me how to split a tree on the middle with my _left_ hand?" Lee asked from my left side, leaning over so he could see us both.

I stared at him for a moment, wondering if he _ever _thought about anything else than training and Gai Sensei. Not bothering to wait for any response Lee began telling another story about him and Gai. After some minutes I was starting to realize that he had already told me this story… twice!

* * *

The three of us hung out the entire day, but as dinner time came around, Lee had to get home. I wasn't very upset about that, I loved Lee as a friend, but now I really needed some alone time with my potential boyfriend.

Neji and I decided to go to my place, where we knew we could be alone. The thought of being home alone with Neji made my heart skip a beat, but I managed to keep my cool.

We entered our small house, and sat down on the couch in the living room. It was a really awkward moment of silence. I sat down first, and Neji took a seat next to me, but with a fairly distance between us. He just stared at the black TV in front of us, and I had no idea what to make out of it.

I shifted my sitting position a few times, trying hard to find something to say, but nothing came to my mind. What did Neji like to talk about? Well… not a lot of things, really.

"Calm down," he muttered, and leaned heavily back against the blue couch. I stared at him, once again wondering how he always knew what I was feeling. He put his arm on the back of the couch and signalled for me to scoop over. My heart beat like crazy and my belly twisted painfully as I did as I was told.

As I nervously put my head on his shoulder, he wrapped his outstretched arm around my shoulders, and left it there. "Relax," he told me in a whisper, and I truthfully tried to tense down. "Why are you so tense when we are alone?" he asked, a teasing smile on his face.

"Because you make me feel stupid," I answered truthfully, sounding just a little like a kid. I heard him snort in a humoured way.

"You are absolutely not stupid," he said, and put his head on top of mine. "You are perfect."

I grinned. He made me feel so happy. "Neji," I started, not sure if I dared ask the upcoming question or not.

"Hn?"

"Why haven't you kissed me since when you visited me?" I asked hesitantly, with a small voice. he chuckled a little, making a smile enter my face again.

"Why? Do you like kissing, Tenten?" he asked teasingly.

"Maybe I do," I answered and looked up at him with a grin.

"I might kiss you again," he said, and I curiously lifted my head from his shoulder to see him better. The smirk on his face was so heart melting that I caught myself wondering how the hell he could be human. "But you'll have to tell me something – and you have to be completely honest."

I nodded my head eagerly, willing to do anything to get a kiss from him.

"Who's the better kisser? Me or Jin?" he asked, staring directly into my eyes. At first I wondered if he was even serious, but after a long moment of silence I realized that he was.

"You, of course!" I said almost laughing, and sat up more properly, ready for the kiss. He grinned at me, and stroke my cheek with his hand lovingly.

"Why did you let him kiss you?" he asked, still keeping his eyes on mine. "Please, tell me."

"Why do you still care about that?" I asked, and looked down at my lap for a moment, once again not sure how to handle the situation.

"Because I never realized how much it would bother me if someone, except me, kissed you," he said, and sighed heavily. He reached behind my head and opened the knot on my head banner and took it off. I watched as he put it on the table in front of us, and turned to face him again, wondering what he was doing.

He was looking at me with that new sort of feeling in his eyes. The way he looked at me made me feel like I was beautiful, which was something I didn't feel very often.

"He was trying to blackmail me," I said, finally answering his question. "Jin. he found out about my _feelings_ for you and threatened to tell you about it if I didn't let him kiss me," I explained, not looking at Neji at all.

"Hn," he muttered under his breath, and pulled me back besides him, once again wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"Neji…!" I protested and sat back up again. he looked at me, a little confused. "What about my kiss?" I asked, not believing that he could have forgotten that easily.

"Oh, yeah…" he muttered and sat up a little. "Where do you want it then?" he asked teasingly, making me blush quite fiercely. "Hm?" he pushed, and pushed my bangs away so he could plant a kiss on my forehead. I smiled, but wasn't exactly satisfied.

"But…"

"Here?" he asked and traced his finger down my jaw line, and down my neck, making me shiver as he touched the sensible areas.

"Neji… You know where…" I muttered frustrated, and put my arms around his neck, suddenly feeling a little more confident than before. His smirk became a grin as I leaned more towards him. I felt his arms sneak around my waist.

He put his lips on mine, forcefully pulling me more towards him. His lips moved so calmly against mine, and it all made me wonder if he had kissed other girls before me.

"Tenten," he said breaking apart for one quick breath. "Say it." He kissed me again before I got the time to ask what he wanted me to say, but eventually I got the message.

"I love you," I whispered against his lips, hoping he would say the same to me.

But he didn't.

I loved that he was kissing me, but I really wanted to hear him say that he loved me too. Why couldn't he just say it?

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**A/N:** I am sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Right now I'm too tired to go over this another time, so yeah, I hope it was okay : )

Good night, everyone. And remember to tell me whatyou think :3


	19. Chapter 19 Paralyzed

**A/N:** eh... Well, hello you guys. You've probably noticed how I haven't updated in a while? Well, i've been lacking inspiration. Honestly. And I've tried to write this chapter SO many times, but it never turned out right. So now, after quite a few upset reviewers (which breaks my heart, so hard!) I've finally managed to get this chapter right! It was supposed to be longer, but I realized that if I didn't stop where I left it, it would just turn out like my last four attempts, which totally wasn't good enough.

Now, I guess most of you don't even remember the plot, but hey? Give me a review anyway, please? I'm already planning the next chapter, and Not In the Shadow will be updated soon :

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**Chapter 19. Paralyzed  
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Neji was completely different, but still he was the same. I didn't know how he was able to do that, but Neji always proved himself capable of doing what other people thought was impossible. That was simply one of the things that was so darn attractive about him.

I was thinking it all through as I sat by my window, knees pulled up under my chin. I stared at the sun setting behind the mountains on the other side of the village, all kinds of thoughts running through my head at once. The low sun cast an orange, warm light over the rooftops. It shone in through my window, allowing my shadow to stretch out over my bedroom floor.

I realized that I didn't really know whether I was mostly lucky or unlucky nowadays. With Neji accepting my feelings (which was a _huge_ surprise), and the catastrophe that was occurring at home (which wasn't really going anywhere), I simply had no idea.

Spending the afternoon alone with Neji made me feel so good on the inside. And I really needed to hold on to that feeling, so I avoided my parents as best as I could the rest of the day. Now, right before I was about to curl up under my bed sheets for the night, I still managed to push the depressing thoughts away, and focus my mind on all the good events of the day.

I felt pretty good about myself as I lay down, and pulled the white sheets over my body. I smiled up towards the ceiling, smiling to myself, remembering the feeling of Neji's lips against mine. His hands holding me. And the words…

Subconsciously I started twinning my brown locks around my fingers while staring up at the ceiling. The smile on my face just grew wider and wider. I felt like my heart was swelling up inside my chest. I ended up with a hot blush on my face and a fit of giggles caught in my throat. I couldn't start giggling on my own now. Mom and dad would get suspicious and come up to check on me.

It didn't take very long before I fell asleep. It turned out to be an easy task to do when I didn't have tears to hold in. With the fresh memory of Neji's words, his kisses and his touch I managed to drift off into a peaceful slumber. As the night proceeded the darkness swallowed my room.

* * *

I wasn't exactly awake, but somehow I managed to notice my surroundings. I could see my white roof, barely visible in the darkness. I could feel the cool night air coming in from my open window. And I could hear someone walking around my bed. I could hear someone else's breath joining the sound of mine.

But I had never opened my window. And who would be in my room at this time of the night?

In my dazed state of mind I put two and two together and remembered how Neji had been in my house some days ago. I could feel a smile sneak onto my lips, but I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I waited for his calm and comfortable voice. I waited for the feeling of safety that always came with his presence.

"Do you know what the best part of watching people sleep night, after night, after night is?"

_What..?_

"You learn everything about their sleeping routines." The voice was cold. It was a man. He talked slowly, like he had all the time in the world.

That was _not_ Neji's voice, I thought frantically. The feeling of safety, that I had hoped for, was far away. My heart started beating faster. And faster. And faster.

"You see, a human's sleeping process are divided into several phases, with different levels of consciousness," the voice continued.

His footsteps came to a halt, and I could feel him standing right next to the edge of my bed. I could only keep my eye lids up for a few seconds, before they fluttered closed again. I felt like I was bolted to the bed. My limbs were completely paralyzed. A distant voice started screaming in the back of my hazy mind, but I couldn't master the strength to listen to it.

"At one point, your body completely loses consciousness, well almost that is. Nevertheless, it's _very_ hard to wake you up during this part of your sleep," he explained. I could hear the sound of metal scraping against metal, but I couldn't tell where it came from.

"If you ask me; that's the best time to slip muscle paralyzing medicines into your victims parted lips. When they slip into a lighter phase of their slumber, they won't even know what hit them before it's too late," his voice was dripping with slyness. "_Way_ too late."

"And the best part is: no one will know what's happening, because you _can't _call for help," a low chuckle escaped his lips. As I struggled to keep my eyes open, I could see the white form of his teeth reflecting in the darkness. They looked like wolf teeth.

"I'm gonna take you out, if you don't mind, sweety," he said and leaned closer to me.

I tried to scream, but I wasn't able to take in enough air to get even the slightest sound out. Panic started kicking in. I felt like I was panting, but without breathing. With my heart beating frantically inside my chest, I felt his cold long fingers curl around my arms, and without even an effort, he pulled me up in a sitting position.

I was facing him. With the moon shining brightly in through my window, I could finally see his face. Had I not been completely paralyzed, I would have jumped out of the window and not come back before I had at least ten weapon scrolls on my hands. And probably not without Neji and Lee to help me out.

Cause it was _him._ A sharp wave of fear washed over me as I recognized the sharp features of his face, the messy black hair and the evil swirling around in his blue eyes. The one ninja that got away during our last mission. The one man that nearly killed me.

He scooped me up in his arms and lifted me up. My body was getting hot, and the familiar fear of being too weak to even protect myself kicked in. I wanted to swallow, but my body couldn't even hear me anymore. My head, and my body were two separate things. My limbs were heavy like mountains, while my head was clouded, and felt a little too light.

With soundless movements and great balance, he quickly carried me out of my bedroom through the window, and slid down the house wall. We landed on the street almost soundlessly.

While I was trapped in my own body, he started running, using his bloodline limit to the fullest. The entire world became a blur for my already blurry vision. I got dizzy, and felt sick, and the last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness was the blur of the village, changing to a blur of trees, and then darkness.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, after what felt like only a few minutes, I saw myself lying on a cold, wooden floor. I blinked and glanced down at the floor, wondering where all the water came from, before I realized it was coming from me. A thin layer of sweat covered my entire body. My legs lay limp on the floor, bare and decorated with big blue wounds.

Confusion swirled around my head like a cloud as I watched myself take in my surroundings. I was in a house, somewhere in the woods. A row of windows stretched over the long wall to my right, allowing the grey moonlight to light up some of the empty room.

My brown hair was a mess, and hung around my shoulders in brown locks. The over sized, white T-Shirt was all I was wearing. And the most horrifying fact about the image before me, was my general lack of weapons of any kind.

I stared at myself, trying to figure out what kind of a trick this was. My hands were twitching slightly, as my muscles were recovering from the drugs _he_ had given me.

"What are you seeing, girly?"

I yelped out in surprise. With the shock of suddenly hearing his voice I was thrown back into myself, and could see with my own eyes again.

"Hallucinations are one of the many side effects of that drug."

His dark, lean figure lingered on the other side of the wide, empty room. I could barely see him in the dark, but the grey light from the moon outside made it possible for me to make out his figure. He was leaning his lower back against a window frame, watching me recover from his "medicine".

Helplessly I waited for him to make a move, or to at least say something, since he seemed to be pretty found of talking, and since I wasn't really able to move on my own.

Small spasms spread through my legs. I flinched at the unfamiliar pain, and bit down on my lip to prevent myself from screaming.

"There's no point in trying to act brave now. You are going to break by dawn, and then there isn't any hope left for you to even hope for," he chuckled again, satisfied with his little speech. "And your team mates don't even know that you are here."

"When they find out about this…" I started, wanting to find the right words to at least sound like I believed he wouldn't get away with killing me, but my mind was still too foggy to work properly.

"Hn, I'd blame it on the medicine I gave you, but you don't really seem to get it. I. Am. Going. To kill you," his voice sent shivers down my spine. I clenched my trembling hands into fists, forcing myself to stay strong, even though this seemed hopeless.

"Now, I'm not going to kill you while you are still incapable to even stand up," he said, faking a soothing voice.

The shadow before me pushed himself off of the window frame, and started walking towards me. Ever so slowly. He kind of swung his legs forward, with a playful look on his cold face, barely visible in the dim moonlight.

I collected all the energy I could, and clumsily tried to stand up and run for it, but I didn't even get up before I fell to the floor again.

A protesting sound escaped my lips, as he suddenly was hovering over me, one knee to the floor. His blue eyes was staring down at me with eagerness shining brightly at my face. He grabbed my still trembling arm, and reached behind him for a kunai in his holster. I watched him spin it around his fingers a few times before catching it in a firm grip.

"I've heard that if you want to recover faster from these kinds of medications, you have to activate your body," he said, matter-of-factly, and looked at me like he was totally serious. "I know a very good way of activating your body."

I squirmed against his grip, feeling my breathing coming out in short gasps with the stress that was steadily building up in my chest.

At this point I was glad Neji didn't know where I was. I was glad no one knew. To have _anyone_ seeing me this weak and helpless would be worse than getting killed.

"Now," his cold voice nearly echoed in the empty room. "Where shall we begin?"

* * *

**A/N:** You have no idea how scared I am right now. Please don't kill me!

As you probably guessed, this was another attempt on a cliffhanger! Lol, I'm hopeless. I really wanna know what you thought about this, 'cause I'm not entirely sure about the flow of it, you know?

Anyway, hope you liked it... even just a little bit ^^"


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